EDIT: Contest closed at 11:59Pm last night. Some comments came in via email because something went wrong with the commenting system. It’s fixed and I got the mails. We’ll announce the winner later! I’m on transit from the Visayas Blogging Summit / Philippine Blog Awards for Visayas so expect an update tonight after I fly home.

This week, we will talk about SMART Communications.

I have been a loyal postpaid SMART subscriber since 2003 and have, on occasion helped them with a couple of things including the initial beta testing of the Sandbox service c/o BlogBank and also speaking in their internal trainings. That means that my relationship with SMART is really intimate. I’ve worked with really great people within the company including Arlyn, Wo, Rezza and many more. But let’s talk about that later. Right now we have something to raffle off!

For the first week of my holiday giveaway we’re giving away the highly coveted Samsung Galaxy Tab. After playing with the tablet, I realized that the device is really just half of the picture — to make it any more useful than a picture gallery or eBook reader, you need to have it fixed to a data plan (or a WiFi hotspot). This is why SMART is the first to offer the Galaxy Tab with an unlimited data plan.

These are good deals!

New Lines (Unlimited Data Plans)
Plan 1500 – Samsung Galaxy Tablet sells for P16,000
Plan 2000 – P4,000
Plan 3000 – FREE
Plan 4000 – FREE

Retention (Unlimited Data Plans)
Plan 1500 – P15,500
Plan 2000 – P3,500
Plan 3000 – FREE
Plan 4000 – FREE

And here’s the monthly cost:

CONTEST TIME!!!

1. Because SMART has the strongest signal across the nation, I’m making this open to everyone in the Philippines. Caveat: You will need to find a way to pick up the prize if you’re outside Metro Manila.

2. This contest will be open from today till 23:59 of Saturday the 27th of November.

3. To enter the contest you will need to compose a haiku expressing how amazing SMART is as a telco service. To keep things simple, let’s keep the definition of a haiku to three lines composed of syllables in 5-7-5. Since brevity is the soul of wit, let’s keep the haiku to three lines only. It can be in English or Filipino or Taglish.

Here’s an example:

I was a sad boy
Until SMART gave me a phone.
Simply amazing.

HAHA! I’m sure you can do better!

First line has 5 syllables. Second has 7. Third has 5. Let’s not get into the debate of the haiku needing an onomatopoeic and seasonal reference OK, philosoraptor?

4. You can enter as many haikus as you want in the comments section below. This isn’t a random raffle — we’ll be picking the most creative haiku after the deadline and announce the winner on Sunday. So yeah, you can bunch up your haikus in one post or stagger them if you want to see what the competition is submitting 😉 Just keep on submitting!

(n.b. You may or may not mention ‘SMART’ in the haiku — it’s really up to you.)

5. Please leave a valid email address in your entry / comment field so we can get in touch with you if you win!