Landline
ETISALAT: 50 fils/min
Etisalat's Favourite Country Plan allows you to make calls to a selected country at 50 fils per minute. It is ideal for people who need to be in close touch with loved ones back home, and is seen as a counter-offer to du's Homephone plan. Offer period lasts until August 9, 2010. Callers must pay a connection charge of Dh1 per call (offer 1) or Dh20 per month (offer 2). Call rate for other local and international calls remain unchanged. Dial 125 to subscribe.
DU : 60 fils/minute
Du's Homephone post-paid service allows you to call from a du or etisalat landline using a du international call gateway for 60 fils per minute on off-peak hours (9pm to 9am). Peak-hour calls are charged Dh1.80 per minute (3 fils per second) for the first five minutes and 90 fils per minute after the fifth minute. Charging no monthly subscription, du also offers outright discounts to Homephone customers of 31 per cent on overseas phone calls made from an etisalat landline. Customers must pre-register with a du partner store to use the service.
Blackberry
ETISALAT: Dh49/month
Blackberry Unlimited Social Package - for Dh49 per month.
Designed mainly for youngsters and urban professionals, so they can stay online any time, anywhere, through Yahoo Messenger, Blackberry Messenger, ICQ and Facebook, among others. This scheme has set a new benchmark (compared to a regular Blackberry service, which still costs Dh185 per month). To subscribe, just type "r bis49" and send SMS to 1010. No documents required.
DU: 3-6 months free
Free Blackberry service for 3 to 6 months.
A lot of mobile phone users have switched to Blackberry (BB) to take advantage of this offer. Since du charges Dh130 per month for a BB service, pay-as-you-go customers can get outright savings of Dh390, with free service for the first three months. Those who travel a lot also get a 50 per cent discount on unlimited international Blackberry service.
Online 8.8 fils/min
Etisalat and du have both announced plans to start Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service, while reports say internet phone firm Skype is talking to regional operators for possible partnerships. Going by the prevailing VoIP rates, you will most likely be paying just 8.8 fils per minute to call.
