Nat Geo Live Augmented Reality at 360 Mall

Live Augmented Reality for National Geographic is on display at 360 Mall Lobby (22nd to 25th Dec 2011). The experience is an amazing one. Here is a link to YouTube videos of Live Augmented Reality (3.00 minutes) CLICK HERE or CLICK HERE . The same video is embedded below.

New Emergency Number

With the start of 2010, the new emergency number in Kuwait has been made definite. DIAL 112 for Fire Brigade, Police or Ambulance. This new number is functioning and has been implemented as many countries around the world are using this same three digit number.

International call rates reduced

From 23rd November 2008, the international call rates for a few countries have been reduced. Ministry of Communication (MoC) has made this positive move and has suggested for further reduction for other countries.

Now calling India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Philippines has been reduced to 170 fils per minute (KD 0.170 per minute).

Also calling some countries in the Arab world - Egypt, Lebanon and Syria have been reduced to 150 fils per minute (KD 0.150 per minute).

Now the crackdown on the illegal internet international call center have increased after the reduction of the rates since 23rd November. After a period of one month since this has been applied the crackdown has been reduced and things are back to normal. People are still finding internet international calling rates attractive as the price difference is atleast 2 to 5 times.

Incoming calls on Mobiles FREE

With the VIVA network being activated on 3rd December 2008, the competetion has been started. Along with Viva, the other 2 networks, Zain and Wataniya have made incoming calls FREE. That is calls being received from other Cell networks, landlines and International calls are going to be Free (No charges are going to be applied). This has come as a relief for many people as they used to avoid receiving landlines. Now with this offer, people planning to make calls from their cellphones can grab their nearest landline phones and make calls to mobiles. This will help people on minimising their phone bills. I am sure more offers are on the way with the 3 networks competeting each other.

Viva network active

From Wednesday, 3rd December 2008 onwards Viva has made its network active. So people can now go to Viva centers and purchase new SIM cards. The people who have registered numbers online during the last 4 weeks can pick their sim cards from the sim collection outlets or authorised dealer outlets on the dates specified below. All the numbers starting with:

• 550 may collect between Dec 6 and Dec 12.
• 551 or 552 may collect between Dec 13 and Dec 19.
• 553, 554 or 558 may collect between Dec 20 and Dec 26.
• 555 may collect between Dec 27 and Jan 2.
• 556, 557 or 559 may collect betweeb Jan 3 and Jan 9.

Sim Collection outlets are:

• Mishref Fairground Exhibition Hall - No 8.
• Slayil Resort - Al Jahra
• Al-Manar Mall - Al Jahra
• Al Kout - Fahaheel
• Marina Mall - Salmiya
• Airport (Arrival Lounge)

Authorized Dealer outlets:

• i2
• BEC
• LG
• Eureka

Currently, over 500,000 people have registered with Viva in the last 4 weeks. These people have to show up with their Civil ID or Passport during the timeslots mentioned above.

Viva's Vanity number

Kuwait's third telecom company - Kuwait Telecom Company has started off with provisions to reserve numbers. These VIVA numbers have the prefix of "55", therefore the last 6 digit combinations are open for reservation. These reservations can be done online at the VIVA website or at Kiosks in different areas of Kuwait. Reserving these numbers donot cost and can be done only using your Civil I.D. or Passport numbers. This has been included for restriction so that only one person can book one number. This is helpful in keeping people from capturing numbers in bulk so that black marketing can be avoided. First Come First Serve is the motto currently for reserving numbers. This facility has been open for 4 weeks. Once the SIM cards are ready then the customers will be contacted to pick them up at the nearest VIVA outlet.

8-digit phone nos only from Oct 17

From October 17, only 8-digit numbers (as per new numbering system) are going to be active in Kuwait. Ministry of Communication (MoC) will be updating their system from 2 am to 5 am on Oct 17. So systems will be down. I am sure people have already updated their phoneooks and contact list.

People have to keep in mind that for Dial-up internet users, the 6 digit numbers like 8** *** should be modified by adding 1. Therefore the new modified number is 18** ***.