Zain goes live in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
· Kingdom joins ‘One Network’ borderless roaming service connecting 45 million customers in 16 countries
· Customer centric approach, targeting equal market share
· USD$1.5 billion investment in state-of-the-art network
August 25, 2008, Riyadh, KSA
Zain, the leading mobile operator in 22 countries across the Middle East and Africa announces the launch of commercial services in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, commencing August 26, 2008. With the launch, the Kingdom joins and connects to ‘One Network’, the Group’s renowned, and the world’s first, borderless mobile service offering over 45 million Zain customers in 16 countries favourable rates, free of high roaming charges for cross-border communications.
At launch date, Zain’s coverage area will cover 95% of the Kingdom’s population with its state-of-the-art mobile network which will initially cover 53% of the population in 36 major cities and 14 highways spanning over 4,000 kms. The remaining coverage area will be attained initially through a complimentary countrywide roaming service. Zain will introduce high-speed 3.5G broadband technology to approximately half of the Saudi population offering the latest 3.5G services that include television, video-calling, rich multimedia content and even faster internet access. Zain’s network will be further expanded in stages to eventually cover the entire Kingdom.
On this momentous occasion, Zain Group CEO Dr Saad Al Barrak said “we are delighted to have launched services in the economic powerhouse of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and we intend to fulfill our promise to offer the community world-class telecom services. The experience and resourcefulness of all 22 Zain operations are all committed to supporting the Saudi operation. Coupled with the impressive economic growth that the Kingdom is experiencing, we are confident that all our stakeholders in the Kingdom and beyond will reap excellent rewards in future years.”
Dr. Al Barrak also commented on the role One Network would be playing on wooing new customers. “We believe that being connected to such a valuable service will be one of many factors that will attract Saudi customers to Zain,” he declared. “The attractiveness of and continual expansion of the ‘One Network’ will play a key role in Zain attaining its year 2011 targets of attaining 150 million customers and being a top-ten global mobile operator”
Enabling cross-border communications at favourable rates free of high roaming charges, ‘One Network’ provides loved ones the opportunity to stay connected as well as stimulating trade and enriching livelihoods, both economically and socially. *See note below for more on One Network.
Customer focused
Dr. Marwan Alahmadi, CEO of Zain in Saudi Arabia commented, “from day one and onwards, our focus is to provide the Saudi community the best services and value for money that mobile technology has to offer. With the benefit of drawing on Zain’s rich experience in serving customers in 22 countries, we will ensure that our customers receive quality service in all aspects. We do understand community needs and will strive to fulfill them and this introductory offer is the first of many new things to come”.
With a focus on Corporate Social Responsibility, to date Zain in Saudi Arabia has made considerable financial contributions to various charitable organizations such as the King Abdul Aziz University, the BMG Foundation as well as sponsoring the Kingdom’s national football teams.
Zain in Saudi Arabia has committed investments of over US$1.5 billion in the development of the network. Recently the operation undertook a long testing phase with 9,000 mobile users that proved invaluable. “It gave our technical staff and customer care personnel the sufficient understanding and experience to improve and finesse many of the services that makeup our world-class network. We have invested heavily and we are now ready for the challenges ahead, confident of success. We are targeting equal market share along with the two existing operators in the years ahead”, commented Dr Alahmadi.
From July 26, 2008 Zain offered people the opportunity to reserve a special number, with tens of thousands registering their request. On launch date, the operation will have 160 official Zain outlets, over 3,000 authorized distribution points of sales and the operation estimates that over 40,000 independent businesses will act as resellers of recharge cards. The operation currently has a 2100 strong workforce.
Zain Saudi Arabia is a publicly listed company on the Saudi Stock Exchange ‘Tadawul’, first trading on 22 March 2008 with a share price of 24.25 Saudi Riyals (approx $6.45) on 24 August 2008 representing a 142.5% premium on the par value of the share of 10 Saudi Riyals. The Zain Group is listed on the Kuwait Stock Exchange with a current market value exceeding USD$27.5 billion (as at 24 August, 2008).
ENDS
Notes to editors:
More on One Network
Potentially available to 500 million people, these 16 Zain Africa and the Middle East operating countries serving some 45 million customers currently participate in ‘One Network’:
Bahrain, Burkina Faso, Chad, the Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Iraq, Jordan, Kenya, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.
All Zain customers (pre-paid and post-paid) in Africa and the Middle East being part off and using ‘One Network’ will enjoy the benefits of being treated as a ‘local’ customer wherever they are. Customers can make calls and send messages at local rates when communicating with a travelling Zain customer who will receive incoming calls free-of-charge and be able to make calls back home at local rates. Pre-paid customers can also top up their phones with recharge cards bought from either their home country or more than one million outlets available in one of the 16 One Network countries. The One Network service is automatically activated upon crossing the geographic border into one of the countries, with no prior registration required or sign-up fee.
Ghana will join on commencement of commercial services. Zain plans to roll-out One Network in all its operations, subject to regulatory approvals.
