Non-roaming in Arab countries

Zain Launches Borderless Roaming in the Middle-East
see also Zain

Zain (formerly MTC) says that it has launched a borderless “One Network” mobile service in four countries in the Middle East. This service, originally launched in Africa, today allows Zain’s 14 million customers in Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan and Sudan to be treated as local customers in terms of pricing, while using their home network service.

As well as allowing Zain’s pre-paid and post-paid customers to make calls and SMS at local rates and receive incoming calls free-of-charge, One Network enables them to top-up their mobile phone credits with locally purchased scratch cards, which are widely available in more than 200,000 points of sales.

Zain customers can also make free calls to their Customer Care service via home network short codes. These will be routed to their home network call centre where they can speak to a service agent in their own dialect.

“The One Network offer is not built around pricing but around simplicity and user friendliness leveraging our cross country networks,” explained George Held, One Network Program Director and architect of the service that already unites 12 countries on the African continent. “One Network is also not standing still. We are constantly expanding not just geographical coverage but also the scope of the service.”

Last week, a meeting of the Arab Regulators Network (AREGNET) called on national regulators and the operators to lower their international roaming rates.