RIYADH: Etihad Etisalat (Mobily) has announced the launch of the "Mobile Roaming Alliance" (MRA) in conjunction with its mother company, Etisalat in the UAE, and its sister company Etisalat Misr in Egypt.
The MRA provides Mobily customers, both prepaid and postpaid, with high value roaming rates that offer savings of up to 53 percent, as well as a simple, affordable and transparent rate whenever they roam in the UAE and Egypt, taking away the complexity of calculating complex roaming charges. Likewise, Etisalat and Etisalat Misr customers traveling into the Kingdom from the UAE and Egypt will enjoy the same privileges and affordable flat rate.
The MRA itself is part of a strategic attempt by Mobily to leverage synergies across its group in order to deliver a unique value proposition to its extended customer base and enhance the appeal of mobile services to roaming customers. "Etisalat's global reach across the 16 markets we operate in gives us a unique opportunity to leverage our group synergies for the benefit of our customers. This launch is just the first phase of our roaming alliance and we would like to extend this eventually to all our customers across the various markets we operate in," said Mohammad Hassan Omran, chairman of Etisalat in the UAE.
"This is part of our commitment to our customers to deliver outstanding customer value from our perspective as a truly global brand considering our growing reach and expansion across international markets," he added.
The MRA comes in line with commitment made by Etisalat at the May 2007 Arab Regulators Network (AREGNET) meeting, aimed at reducing international roaming charges in Arab countries, and also comes as part of Mobily's commitment to supporting the Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) by providing services priced at fair and affordable rates.
Mobily's Managing Director and CEO Khalid Al-Kaf said the new roaming rates came after serious study by the three companies across the span of the past few months, that started with cooperation on the e-Cable, a fiber-optic cable that starts in the UAE, passes through the Kingdom using Mobily's national fiber-optic network, interconnects to the Mediterranean through Etisalat Misr's network and finally connects to Europe through Marseilles on the French coast. Al-Kaf said similar cooperation opportunities between the mother and sister companies were in the works to satisfy customers. Highlighting the importance of the MRA, Al-Kaf said the agreement covered almost 100 million people in the three countries and a large volume of tourist traffic.
Mobily has roaming agreements in 186 countries through 400 GSM operators worldwide.
© Arab News 2008
