Mobile Telecommunications Company Saudi Arabia (Zain KSA) entered the Saudi market this year becoming the Kingdom’s third licensed telecom company. Zain, the leading mobile operator in 22 countries in Middle East and Africa, made its debut on Aug. 26 offering incentives, such as 50 percent lifetime discounts for the first 500,000 customers and the opportunity to become part of one network system for 16 countries with no roaming charges.
Since commencing operations four months ago, Zain has over one million customers and raised $4.5 billion in capital despite the world economic turmoil. The company was recently named the Best Overall Operator in Africa and the Middle East at the Annual CommsMea Awards 2008 held this month in Dubai.
Zain has come a long way from being a single mobile operator in Kuwait with 600,000 subscribers in 2002 to a major telecom conglomerate. Upon receiving the prestigious award, Zain President Saad Al-Barrack said: “This acknowledgment recognizes the dedicated efforts of our expansion strategy we commenced back in 2003 aiming to be a Top 10 global telecom company by 2011.”