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.