Tuesday, Jan 31, 2012
DUBAI (Zawya Dow Jones)--Abu Dhabi's Emirates Telecommunications Co., or Etisalat, the region's biggest telecom provider by market value, said Tuesday that it has reduced its voice roaming tariffs by up to 26% for the Gulf Cooperation Council, or GCC region, following a GCC-wide regulatory ruling earlier this week.
"Etisalat's prepaid and postpaid customers will now pay up to 26% less on outgoing voice calls when traveling to any GCC country, namely, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar or Saudi Arabia," the company said in an emailed statement.
Matthew Willsher, Etisalat's chief marketing officer, said that Etisalat customers have been benefiting from reduced roaming prices since 2010 when the company introduced up to 48% discount on GCC roaming rates.
Etisalat's move to cut roaming rates comes as part of a GCC regulator requirement to cut rates ahead of a Feb.1 deadline, said Matthew Reed, a senior analyst at Informa Telecoms and Media.
Analysts believe that the roaming cuts will not have a major impact on telecom operators' revenue.
"The rates cut could mean more roaming usage so overall the usage will be the same or more. Alternatively, the operators could raise the prices somewhere else to compensate," said Reed.
Etisalat shares closed flat at AED9.50 on Tuesday.
-By Shereen El Gazzar, Dow Jones Newswires; +971 444 61684; Shereen.elgazzar@dowjones.com
Copyright (c) 2012 Dow Jones & Co.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
31-01-12 1339GMT
