YugaTech’s guide to Smart’s 30MB free internet

UPDATED September 28th, 2014

Good news of the day for all Smart, Sun Cellular, and Talk and Text prepaid subscribers: You’ve got free internet courtesy of the chairman, MVP himself! Bad news, though: It’s only allocated at 30MB per day. We give you a short guide in using your free mobile data and save a few bytes in the long run.

As announced earlier today, Smart, TNT and Sun Cellular subscribers can now enjoy free internet until November 30. The catch, though, is that only 30MB per day will be provided, and there are certain restrictions and fair use policies in all active prepaid subscribers who registered for the free service. Below is an infographic of what you can and cannot do with the allocated amount per day:

(Click the image for a larger preview)

Author’s note: 30MB is equivalent to 20 emails, or 50 webpages, or 20 social media posts with pics, and so on. 

30MB may sound really small for a lot of people considering that we are spending a lot of time online, and as a result, deemed several places in the country as Selfie capitals of the world. Here are a few ways to maximize your allocated data, lengthen your browsing experience, and not spend on extra internet browsing credits:

1. Use a mini browser to surf websites

Instead of using full-feature browsers such as Chrome or Safari, one can simply resort to using small, lightweight browsers such as Opera Mini and UC Browser Mini to save data. These browsers compress the websites before transferring the data back to your phone, saving you as much as 90% in traffic data. The author uses Opera Mini to access his social media accounts, and the downside he’s been getting is not receiving notifications nor uploading pictures. He doesn’t mind it anyway.

2. Install apps to count your mobile data

If you’re not keen about using the settings to check on mobile data, you may install apps to measure how much they’ve been using for the day. Onavo is one.

3. Restrict syncing and background apps

Syncing your apps also exhaust a huge amount of data. For a start, you can turn them off in your settings panel. For Android devices, Go to Settings > Accounts and turn off all sync features enabled as listed on each app. You may also directly go to the apps and disable the refresh intervals.

To restrict background apps, Proceed to Settings>Data Usage under Wireless and Networks, and click once any app listed. Click on ‘Restrict background data’, and ‘OK’ on the warning box that appears.

If you’re using an iPhone, you may turn off your background app refresh at Settings > General > Background App Refresh.

If you’re using a Windows Phone, you may use your Battery Saver feature in Settings to disallow apps to run in the background. Click on an app to open its individual settings, then switch off the run in background setting from there.

4. Set a data warning

Android users may be able to set a data warning to ensure that they will not exceed the 30MB limit. Go to Settings>Data Usage. To be able to use this feature, you have to turn on your mobile data service. Once it is turned on, check the ‘Set data usage limit’ and drag the orange line until you have reached your desired usage for warning, and the red line for the limit.

5. Do. Not. Stream.

If you’re keen on lengthening your free mobile experience, then we advise you not to use it for music streaming on Deezer, Smart Music, or Spotify. Streams take up huge amounts of data and might shorten your mobile internet experience for the day.

6. Use WiFi.

If you’re staying at a place for a long time, then better use, if available, a WiFi connection instead. You can free yourself from all the restrictions and surf all you want.

At the end of the day, 30 megabytes is still 30 megabytes, and it is up to us how we are going to use it. Got any tips to share? Leave it at the comments section below.