RIYADH, 10 July — An international prepaid phone card has been launched for the first time in the Saudi market for the benefit of travelers abroad.
The prepaid card market in the Kingdom is currently estimated at over SR500 million and is expected to grow to SR3 billion over the next few years, Hussam Jamal, sales and marketing director of Advanced Telecom Co., told a press conference here yesterday.
The Salam Traveler Prepaid International Card would be available in the denominations of SR50, SR100 and SR250. The card, branded in Arabic and English, can be used in over 120 countries.
Figures released by the Supreme Council of Tourism show that some 3.5 million Saudis traveled abroad in 1999.
ATC also launched BusinessCall, the corporate call card designed primarily for corporate clients. Employees can be assigned BusinessCall cards to make long-distance calls from any phone in Saudi Arabia and abroad. Each employee will be assigned a monthly credit limit by his company to manage his phone use.
Explaining the salient features of the Salam Traveler Card, Jamal said the card comes along with a user’s guide which features calling directions and a toll-free number in every country.
The range of facilities it offers include merging the balance of multiple Salam cards into one. This feature allows the user to basically recharge or add balance to the new card by buying additional Salam cards and merging them on the system.
“The Zero Plus service on your home phone line provides access to make national and international calls from your home phone without the need to dial the card number when making calls. The Zero Plus has been an effective tool for the user and households to budget their monthly phone expenses,” Jamal said.
Another feature is the speed dial code that allows the user to store and access through speed dial codes up to 79 telephone numbers. The user can access the telephone numbers from any phone in Saudi Arabia. The service will be available in four languages — Arabic, English, Hindi and Tagalog.
