TE & Vodafone Egypt ink wholesale services deal
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Telecom Egypt and Vodafone Egypt have inked an agreement for the provision of wholesale telecommunications services.with immediate effect and is expected to represent a total value for TE of approximately EGP 4 billion over the next three years.The deal entails two distinct elements, using TE international gateway services to transit all Vodafone incoming and outgoing international traffic, plus relying on TE’s domestic network for all Vodafone infrastructure leasing needs.
STC Upgrades Benefit Pilgrims, Huge Jump in User Volume
The Saudi Telecom Company (STC) said yesterday that 472 million SMS text messages were sent through its Al-Jawal network from the two holy cities of Makkah and Madinah during the month of Ramadan and the five days of Eid. In addition, the company said a total number of 2,500 million national and international calls were made during the last ten days of Ramadan through its mobile network.
Large numbers of Al-Jawal customers videoed Eid celebrations in Riyadh and Jeddah to their relatives and friends,??? the statement said, adding that STC multiplied high speed 3.G stations at sites in major cities in the Kingdom so people could transmit pictures to friends and families outside the country.
STC added that 250,000 customers benefited from 3.G services through the new services offered by the company during Eid. The company said that it installed 182 radio units and four movable mobile vehicles in main cities in the Kingdom, particularly in Makkah and Madinah, where hundreds of thousands of pilgrims and visitors perform Umrah and other religious rituals.
STC said that it had installed two additional movable stations in the areas surrounding the Grand Mosque in Makkah to insure that pilgrims would be able to make local and international calls during Ramadan.
STC also said that through its international network, 1,360 million calls were made from the Kingdom to various countries — an increase of 50 percent in international traffic.
Our special discount rate during Eid increased the number of calls by 50 percent compared to normal use,??? said Saad Al-Qahtani, corporate communication service manager at STC. As for the special discount rates on pre-paid SAWA cards, they will continue throughout the year,??? he added.
He said that there was a large demand for SAWA cards because, unlike other operators, the STC billing system works on a per-second basis. That means that you are not charged per minute and only charged per second, even if you make a one-second call,??? he said, adding that this system had been adopted by STC since its establishment in both pre-paid and post paid services.
Commenting on a complaint recently filed by Ittihad Etisalat (Mobily) to the Communication and Information Technology Commission (CITC), Al-Qahtani said Mobily alleged that STC had used the name of one of its services in an advertisement to shift numbers to STC.
STC did not violate any rights. The idea was ours exclusively. It is based on not just transferring your number to STC, but on the idea that a mobile number is useless without Kingdom-wide coverage,??? he said, noting that STC was proud of covering 96 percent of the entire Kingdom.
Source- http://www.arabnews.com
