Smart to offer Unli Facebook for free!

Smart Comm. today announced that it will offer free Facebook access to all its 50 million subscribers. If you’re on Smart, you can now access FB on your mobile phone starting tomorrow.

To gain access to the free Facebook mobile, just follow these instructions:

Step 1) Text “FB” and send to 211.

Step 2) You will receive an SMS with a link to a site. Click on the link.

Step 3) Follow instructions there to download the “Facebook Mobile App” from that link.

That’s it. As long as you have at least Php1.00USD 0.02INR 1EUR 0.02CNY 0.12 balance in your load, you can use the FB Mobile App to check your account.

For non-smartphone users, you can just load your browser and point it to m.facebook.com and you’ll be able to access Facebook Mobile for free.

In order to avoid automatic charging, you’ll have to set your browser’s default URL or home page to m.smart.com.ph (or just set it to m.facebook.com).

There’s no need to change your APN settings in order to activate this.

Just a warning though — only Facebook Mobile site is free. If you clicked on a link that jumps to another site, you will get charged the normal rates. This is where it’s going to be tricky so be careful.

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[07June 2012] Filipinos on Facebook – now over 27 million and the 8th biggest community in terms of nationality – have another reason to love the massively popular social networking site. Aside from keeping one informed, entertained, updated, and connected in so many ways, Facebook has also become the friendliest, most accessible site available to the social networking-crazy Pinoy. More importantly, access to Facebook has become free, thanks to wireless leader and official Facebook mobile partner Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart).

Starting June 8, access to Facebook will be offered free for over 50 million Smart subscribers, and they can get on the social networking site with virtually any kind of cellphone they have in their hands.

“We want to encourage more Filipinos to discover the benefits of being online and on Facebook – whether for information, for entertainment, and for simply keeping abreast with the rest of the world,” said Emmanuel Lorenzana, head of the Wireless Consumer Division of Smart.

To get started, Smart subscribers simply need to text FB to 211, then click on the download link which will be sent via SMS for free. Simply follow the instructions to get the ‘Facebook Mobile App’ always on, ready to use, unli, and for free, with a P1 maintaining balance.

By using the Facebook Mobile App, a big bulk of Smart subscribers – more than 24 million users of basic but MMS-capable handsets – can connect to Facebook right away, all day using any ‘Java’ cellphone – almost 2,500 kinds of it.

Having free and ‘unli’ access through the easy-to-use Facebook Mobile App means always being updated, and being low on load is not even a problem anymore. Users can access Facebook with the phone they are used to and comfortable with. And with Smart’s ‘nationwidest’ coverage, users can check Facebook wherever they please.

Users of mid-range, Internet-enabled phones and smartphones get an even better deal. Using their cellphone’s browser, access to m.facebook.com is also free for all Smart subscribers.

With free and unli access to m.facebook.com, Smart subscribers can continue enjoying Facebook even when they are mobile, right on their cellphone. They can make quick checks on live news feeds, post comments, view profiles and photo albums, update their status, read and send private messages, and find friends, without having to find an Internet café.

The free offer is only for access to Facebook, and regular charges will apply when a user clicks on a link to browse photos, videos, news articles or any other content outside of Facebook. Users must also set the Smart site m.smart.com.ph as their mobile browser’s home page to ensure that no charges will apply upon start of browsing.

Smartphone users availing of the free Facebook offer can also protect themselves against unexpected data charges, by subscribing to affordable, catch-all data plans such as Always On 20, which provides 24 hours of data connection to all background activities like push mail, auto updating of apps, among others.

“The growth of the number of Filipinos getting on Facebook and the sheer amount of information that we share in that space like photos, videos, have been simply phenomenal. And the experience for a user becomes twice as delightful if done via mobile – more timely, more personal – which is how we would like to engage our subscribers to ‘live more’. Smart is in a unique and pivotal position to encourage this – at the same time as we make data connectivity more pervasive in the country, and make connected devices more widely available,” added Lorenzana.
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