Etisalat has a new competitor in some of the Indian telecommunication service providers.
Calling cards of Indian companies like Airtel, BSNL, and Tata Indicom are widely popular in the local market, as many Indian expatriates buy them and pass the card number to their relatives, instead of making calls with etisalat telephone cards.
They prefer the Indian cards to local calling cards for the longer talk time they offer during the peak hours, though the price of both the cards are more or less the same.
"If I buy a BSNL card for Dh20, my wife can speak with me for around 14 minutes even during peak hours.
"With an etisalat card, which costs me Dh25, I would get less than 10 minutes," said Varghese, an office boy who works in Sharjah.
He said he buys at least eight cards in a month and then sends the calling card number to his wife via an SMS, so that she can call him back here.
Indian cards have an advantage over the etisalat calling cards during peak hours as the international call rates from India to the UAE are only Dh1.89 per minute, extending the call duration of the card to about 14 minutes.
Mohammed Kutty, a regular user of the Airtel international calling card said that the Dh48 card would last him almost an hour.
"The card costs Rs551 in India (Dh46).
"So, its price here (Dh48) is only marginally more than in India.
"But because the international calling rates from India are much cheaper to the UAE, than vice versa, I get more value for my money," added Kutty, who runs a mechanic shop here.
Groceries and supermarkets remarked that sometimes they sell more Indian cards than the etisalat cards.
Ali, who supplies BSNL and Airtel cards to supermarkets in Sharjah said that there are agents who bring these cards from India in bulk and distribute them.
"We make some quick cash as commission by selling these Indian calling cards.
"And why not, if people are benefiting?" asked Ali, who works in a restaurant.
By Anjana Sankar
© Emirates Today 2007
