RIYADH: Zain, the leading mobile operator in 22 countries across the Middle East and Africa, is open for business in the Kingdom from today offering a package of 50 percent lifetime discount on the billing for the first 500,000 customers and one network system for 16 countries which will not have roaming charges for its subscribers.
Zain will be the third mobile operator in the Kingdom.
“From day one, our focus is to provide the Saudi community the best services and value for money that mobile technology has to offer. With the benefit of drawing on Zain’s rich experience in serving customers in 22 countries, we will ensure that our customers receive quality service in all aspects. We do understand community needs and will strive to fulfill them and this introductory offer is the first of many new things to come,” Marwan Al-Ahmadi, chief executive officer of Zain, said at a packed press conference here yesterday.
With a focus on corporate social responsibility, Zain has made considerable financial contributions to various charitable organizations such as the King Abdul Aziz University, the BMG Foundation as well as sponsoring the Kingdom’s national football teams.
Zain in Saudi Arabia has committed investments of over $1.5 billion in the development of the network. Recently the company undertook a long testing phase with 9,000 mobile users that proved invaluable.
From July 26, Zain offered people the opportunity to reserve a special number, with tens of thousands registering their request. Zain will have 200 official outlets, over 3,000 authorized distribution points of sales and the company estimates that over 40,000 independent businesses will act as resellers of recharge cards. The company currently has a 2,100-strong work force.
“A 50 percent discount is the first-ever offer in the communications market to improve creativity in the communications field and to leverage the quality of its customer services,” Al-Ahmadi said, adding that it would cover such services as local and international calls, text messages, data transfer on Zain and other networks without limitation.
Zain customers will also enjoy the benefit of the One Network system, which will have no roaming charges in 16 countries, including five Arab states such as Jordan, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Iraq. In addition, the Kingdom’s Zain customers will get One Network benefits by using the “Mobinil” network in Egypt. Al-Ahmadi said that they would also be able to recharge their prepaid accounts with the local recharging cards within the countries covered by One Network. Charges include 30 halalas and 55 halalas per minute for postpaid and prepaid cards respectively.
He disclosed that Zain’s services would cover 95 percent of the inhabited areas in the Kingdom starting from the first day of the commercial launch of its services.
“Our rich experience in serving customers in more than 22 countries made us learn that reliability is an important factor for success and we shall not let it go. We will ensure that it remains a basic principle of dealing with our customers in the Saudi market,” he added.
Ismail M. Fikhree, chief operating officer, said that prepaid SIM cards could be purchased at SR100 which will have SR100 worth of credit hours and a postpaid subscription could be obtained with a nominal monthly fee of SR45 through Zain’s outlets.
Zain will introduce high-speed 3.5G broadband technology to approximately half of the Saudi population offering the latest services that include television, video-calling, rich multimedia content and even faster Internet access. Zain’s network will be further expanded in stages to eventually cover the entire Kingdom.
Zain Saudi Arabia is a publicly listed company on the Saudi Stock Exchange (the Tadawul).
