Etisalat announces the launch of its Roaming Alliance initiative

Etisalat today announced the launch of its Roaming Alliance initiative by launching a special rate for its customers roaming in two of its group networks– Egypt (Etisalat Misr) & Saudi Arabia (Mobily). The initiative is part of a strategic Vision by Etisalat to leverage synergies across its group in order to deliver a unique value proposition to its 64 Million extended customer base and enhance the appeal of mobile services to roaming customers.

The Etisalat Roaming Alliance offer will give customers a simple ,affordable and transparent rate whenever they roam taking away the complexity of calculating complex roaming charges. As part of this Roaming Alliance, Wasel Prepaid  and  postpaid  customers of Etisalat  who  roam  in  Saudi Arabia through the Mobily Network  & Egypt through Etisalat Misr would be charged a simple flat rate at AED 1.40 per minute for local calls,  AED 4.65 per minute for calls back to UAE and AED 1.10 per SMS. In order to join the offer, customers need to switch manually to the mobily network (Mobily or Etihad Etisalat or 420-03) in KSA and Etisalat Misr (Etisalat or EGY-03 or 602 – 03) in Egypt.

 “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 Offer and we would like to extend this eventually to all our customers across the various markets we operate in addition to exploring roaming partnerships with other operators,” said Essa Al Haddad, Chief Marketing Officer, Etisalat. “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.”

Etisalat is also very happy to support the Telecom Regulatory Authority (TRA) of the UAE in its attempt to provide transparent prices to UAE consumers by launching this innovative Roaming Alliance offer. The offer complies with the TRA‘s guidelines on price transparency .Outbound roaming customers can check the roaming rates by dialing “*177#” on their mobile phone.

For its International roaming services, Etisalat currently has a partnership network that includes 510 telecommunication companies across the globe. This extended network enables Etisalat customers to use

their mobiles while travelling to 186 countries.

July 13,2008