UAE’s Etisalat, an important shareholder in Mobily, has expressed their interest in having a bigger share of second largest mobile carrier in Saudi Arabia.
From Zawya:
After Etisalat’s general assembly meeting, in which it approved a 60% dividend and a 10% giveaway, Omran only offered that his company is working to determine a fair price at which it would buy more of Mobily’s outstanding shares.
He added that Etisalat would finish its buying spree by the end of the year, adding that all of the company’s foreign investments are sound and well contemplated.
In an excellent move to embrace social networks in Saudi Arabia, Mobily has announced via their CIO (Medhat Amer) that if you any any issues with your Mobily service then just send a twitter post (tweet) with @mobily1100.
Mobily’s main twitter account is @Mobily and is now dedicated for Mobily news. STC also have a twitter account (@STC_KSA) but it’s hardly used for support.
Mobily is not the first in the region, Du is providing support for their customers in UAE.
This is the latest innovation in the field of Mobile Internet telecommunications: print your team flag on it! That’s what STC and Mobily think is a good idea.
Here’s the STC “Quicknet“, sounds a lot like Quakenet.
And Mobily’s “Connect AL-Zaeeem” for Hilal, that’s too many eees.
My advice to the 2 companies: Mobily, just make sure you have enough iPhone 3GS in stock and STC, improve your DSL lines and allow me to use BeejiveIM, open these ports!
I am about to purchase a Novatel MiFi 2352 or 2372. The MiFi shares a 3G data connection as a wireless access point and it’s battery powered. The difference between the 2 models is this:
MiFi 2352 uses the following bands: Tri-band HSUPA/HSDPA 900/1900/2100 MHz and Quad-band GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 MHz. The MiFi 2372 however is: Tri-band HSUPA/HSDPA 850/1900/2100 MHz and Quad-band GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 MHz.
According to this page: STC, Mobily and Zain all use the 2100MHz band for 3G.
Qanawati (my channels) is a new service from Saudi Arabia based company Remal IT. The service allows you to check your flight reservations status via SMS.
You can check for available flight reservations on the following airlines: Saudi Airlines, Nas air and Sama. You can also check for reservations on all airlines using IATA, check the status by flight number and check the arrival/departure activity in Saudi airports.
The service is charged by each individual SMS message. Currently only works with Mobily and Zain cell networks. STC is “coming soon”.
Via Saleh at Saudi Geeks.
Mobily has announced that they have extended their 3G coverage in Saudi Arabia. From AME info:
Saudi Arabia’s Etihad Etisalat Co. (Mobily) has said it has added a number of the kingdom’s Northern Province’s cities and villages to its advanced 3G network (3.5G and 3.75G) coverage. This latest addition brings to 326 the total number of cities and villages which come under Mobily’s 3.5G and 3.75G coverage.
I just came back from Jeddah and the Mobily 3G connection there was horrible: 3G isn’t working in many areas, HSDPA speed is horrible (less than 100kbps down according to speedtest.net iPhone app) and Mobily connect card can’t even connect for some reason.
STC is just as horrible with the dropped calls and horrible 902 services. Maybe it’s me or maybe it’s the weather? Who knows.