Smart Communications, Inc. is not giving up easily on its own unlimited call and text market as it plans to relaunch Smart 258 on April 21.

After its first promo period expired last April 10, Smart will again offer the promo for 30 days, or until April 20.

"We are addressing a specific need of a niche market," said Rogelio Quevedo, Smart head for legal affairs.

Smart started offering the unlimited call and text promo in March 11 in response to the same promo offered by its competitor, Globe Telecom, Inc.

The buffet pricing scheme was made popular by Gokongwei-led Sun Cellular, which attracted subscribers by offering unlimited call and text for P250 a month in October 2004. Sun Cellular recently hiked its 24/7 unlimited call and text plan to P350 a month.

Under the 25/8 promo, prepaid subscribers of Smart and Talk 'N Text can avail of the unlimited call service for P115 which is good for seven days. An unlimited text service is also offered for P60 for four days.

To avoid network congestion, calls made under the 25/8 promo will be cut off after three minutes during peak hours, while it can last up to ten minutes on off-peak hours.

Meanwhile, a source from Globe Telecom said the company is not keen on resuming its unlimited call and text services after a trial period showed that its subscribers were not happy with the poor network service resulting in the promo. Unlimited services tend to congest a network's system as subscribers want to make the most out of the promo.

Globe Telecom earlier offered unlimited services to subscribers of Touch Mobile. A similar offering was made to prepaid subscribers of its main brand, Globe Handyphone, but it was not widely advertised and the information was disseminated only through its business centers and by word-of-mouth.

While Globe Telecom used up the 30-day period allowed for promotions for its Touch Mobile brand, it cut of the same promo for Globe Handyphone, which was supposed to expire on April 22.