Dubai: Residents have welcomed etisalat’s announcement that it will give eLife and standalone landline subscribers free country-wide landline-to-landline calls, on top of its previous service of free calls withtin the same emirate, beginning July 1.

Landline users are currently being charged 5 fils per minute when calling from Dubai to parts of Jebel Ali, Sharjah,Ajman and Umm Al Quwain. Calling Abu Dhabi costs 24 fils per minute while calling Ras Al Khaimah costs 18 fils per minute. By July 1, all calls made to any landlines across the country will be free.

Some stay-at-home residents and businesses welcomed the idea saying it will be most beneficial to them.

“In my case, it is beneficial because my husband works in Sharjah and I usually call his office from my landline at least four times a day,” Jasmine Cipriano, a Dubai housewife, told Gulf News.

“These few fils you use to call from your mobile phone credit could accumulate. Using your landline helps a lot especially for households with a tight budget,” Cipriano said, adding etisalat’s offer also promotes customer loyalty.

Ellen Munez, an office administrator at a real estate company in Dubai, said the offer will definitely slash a significant amount from their office’s telephone bill.

“Personally, it won’t affect my mobile phone bill. But in the office, we always call our suppliers that are based in Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah, and Sharjah. And most of the time the call could be long when you negotiate prices. That said, this is a good move by etisalat,” Munez told Gulf news.

While mobile phone users deemed the offer was good, they said it wouldn’t make a difference to them.

“It’s a nice offer but personally I’m not going to benefit from it because I usually call people on their mobile phones,” Mai Al Khatib, a Jordanian mother-of-three who lives in Sharjah, told Gulf News.

Charges for eLife customers will remain the same, but standalone landline customers will be charged Dh39 per month compared to the previous Dh45 every three months plus usage charges.

Currently, there are 1.1 million homes and businesses in the UAE that use etisalat landline services.

-with additional input from Noor Nazzal, intern at Gulf News.