5 Hacks to Get the Most Out of #SmartFreeInternet’s 30MB Limit
Just recently, Smart and PLDT chairman Manny V. Pangilinan made a big announcement about giving 30MB of free mobile Internet to all its Smart, Talk ‘N Text, and Sun Cellular prepaid subscribers. Most would think that 30MB of mobile data is not enough, but if you manage your usage correctly, 30MB of free mobile data is actually quite reasonable.
To help you get the most out of this 30MB limit, here are 5 hacks that you should keep in mind.
5. Never upload/download anything
Peer-to-peer upload and download are not covered under Smart’s free Internet promo. However, other uploads and downloads might be, but doing either of these two can instantly use up your 30MB limit. You can read and respond to e-mails but refrain from downloading attachments. Furthermore, make sure that your apps don’t download updates over your free mobile data. You can configure this on the settings of your phone like this one below.
(From: www.pcadvisor.co.uk)
You can also configure your phone to never access data over your mobile network.
4. Never use any streaming app or website
Video streaming is not covered by the free Internet promo so don’t use sites that offer this if you don’t want to incur data charges. On the other hand, music streaming apps are allowed but these are data hogs so using them will easily eat up your 30MB limit.
If you really, really want to stream music, we recommend that you use Smart Spinnr, which offers the following packages at specific costs with no extra data charges even when you use it:
- Spinnr Plus 15 – 20% discount for full song downloads or rate of PhP 10 to PhP 15 per song download
- Spinnr Plus 7 – PhP 7 for 7 days with 10% song download discount
- Spinnr Plus Premium – PhP 29 for 30 days with 30% song download discount
- Spinnr Plus VIP – PhP 49 for 30 days with 50% song download discount and exclusive access to Smart Music’s events, promos, and other perks
3. Turn ON “Restrict Background data” when on mobile data
This will prevent apps from accessing background such as checking for updates when on mobile data. This may hamper you from using certain apps that require access to background data however this is a good configuration to set if you want to save your 30MB of free mobile data.
2. Turn OFF “Auto-sync data” when on mobile
To get the most out of your 30MB limit, make sure that your phone doesn’t automatically sync data when your using the Smart free Internet promo. The reason behind this is that even if you’re not actively using your phone, it tends to use up your data if it syncs your apps, photos, files, etc.
1. Switch to a better browser
Android smartphones come with a stock browser, but this doesn’t mean that it is the best browser to use for your 30MB limit. There are other browsers out there that can do a better job that your stock browser.
Furthermore, one of the rationales behind Smart’s free Internet is to allow prepaid subscribers to gain access to Internet for research purposes. Thus, oftentimes, the text is what really matters. So, you can choose to use browsing apps that lets you see only the text version of the website like BareSite and TinyRead. These two apps removes images and ads to deliver only the text on your browser.
Another option is to use Chrome or Opera Mini because these browsers offer a compression feature that uses less data and loads websites faster.
For Chrome, turn on the “Reduce data usage” feature under Bandwidth Management.
For Opera Mini, turn off “Off-Road images”.
Most subscribers would think that 30MB of free mobile data is not much, but with these simple tips, you can make every byte count.
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5 Hacks to Get the Most Out of #SmartFreeInternet’s 30MB Limit
