www.WirelessFederation.com/news: In yet, another world-first, the introduction of the innovative Data Access at local rates (cross-border GRX- based data access) has been enthusiastically received by Zain’s corporate customers, businessmen and leisure travelers who had already experienced tech excellence when the telecoms giant launched the One Network, the world’s first true borderless mobile service in April 2008.

Zain postpaid customers traveling abroad benefit from accessing data services at the local rates of the country they are visiting and this varies based on each country’s rate available to its local customers. This is up to a 97% discount compared to the current data access roaming charges. The service is not only for Zain Bahrain customers, but also for all Zain customers from and traveling to Bahrain, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Jordan and Sudan. Other countries will be added soon, to extend this service over a larger footprint.

Besides data access at local rates, Zain postpaid and prepaid customers traveling abroad are enjoying One Network’s 4 innovative features of: receiving calls for free, making calls plus sending SMS at local rates, topping up with local recharge vouchers, and accessing home network services for free (customers care and voicemail). These are major features, not provided by any other operator in the region, and available to Zain Bahrain and other 15 Zain operator’s customers.

Mr. Ayman Al Alawi, Zain Bahrain’s International Roaming Manager, said, ‘We are delighted that our customers have already reaped the benefits from cross-border data services across the Middle East on the award winning ‘One Network’ platform.’

Zain has made its commitment to expand the revolutionary service of ‘One Network’ in terms of new countries and product offerings, by being the first mobile operator in the world to successfully introduce cross-border local GRX-based data access. This innovative technical solution ensures faster access speeds at cost effective local rates than traditional internet roaming. By this, traveling customers can access high-speed internet, emails, BlackBerry, MMS, the recently launched Zain Create, and other data services at the local rate of the country they are in.

Zain’s One Network proposition is by far superior than any other concept in the market. It’s a true One Network where customers are charged at the local rates available in the visited Zain network. Hence, the traveling customers not only receive all calls for free but also can call, send messages and access data services at local rates. This is in addition to being able to top up their prepaid lines using local Zain vouchers in the country they are in.

One Network currently covers Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jordan, Sudan, Kenya, Nigeria, Niger, Uganda, Tanzanya, Malawi, Chad. In Kuwait, data services are available while voice services are not covered by the One network due to regulatory restriction in Kuwait.

Zain customers traveling abroad to other destinations also enjoy unrivalled data access with Zain’s extensive GPRS roaming agreements with more than 210 partners in 86 countries, more than any other operator in Bahrain. Further with Zain’s 428 voice roaming and40 prepaid roaming agreements, all in all 698 roaming agreements. Our customers will have a wider choice of operators to roam on, and a wider range of services to use while abroad as: voice, SMS, internet access. Our goal is to ensure our customers enjoy the same services they have in Bahrain while abroad, whether it was BlackBerry, accessing the internet from a smart phone or e-go device, sharing photos or videos through MMS, or more.

For more information, please visit www. www.bh.zain.com/