ALKHOBAR, 30 November 2004 — On Dec. 5, ALJAWAL, the mobile unit of Saudi Telecom Company (STC), will be introducing new SAWA recharge cards in the Saudi market.
The new cards come in response to market research indicating consumer demand for recharge cards in a greater range of denominations.
Currently SAWA recharge cards are only available in the SR100 denomination.
From Sunday, SAWA cards will be available in SR50, SR100 and SR300 denominations. The SR300 recharge card will have a validity of 12 months after first use, specifically six months sending and 12 months receiving, and will credit the customer’s account with 11 percent free call units. The SR50 recharge card will have a validity of ten days after the first use.
ALJAWAL sources say that the cards are manufactured to international standards with quality assurance checks throughout the manufacturing process.
They advise consumers that there is no need to use more than minimal pressure to remove the concealing strip covering the SAWA card number.
Scraping away the concealing strip with a fingernail works best. Using very rough objects such as coins or keys to remove the concealing strip is not advised as this could make the number difficult to read.
Along with the new recharge cards, ALJAWAL is introducing discounts for SAWA users’ local calls from SR1.2 per minute to 85 halalas for all calls made either SAWA to SAWA or SAWA to ALJAWAL.
Calls made to STC’s ALHATIF landlines and to the new mobile operator’s lines will be at the rate of SR1.
Additionally, there will be generous SMS rate discounts for SAWA users. Local SMS will be discounted by 50 percent from 50 halalas to 25 halalas and international SMS by 14 percent from 70 halalas to 60 halalas.
It is expected that there will be an announcement soon about international call rate discounts for all STC services — ALJAWAL, SAWA and ALHATIF.
