SMS news updates for expat cell phone users

Dubai: Etisalat has launched several new SMS news services that cover different languages and nations.

Cell phone users can get news updates from countries including Pakistan, India and the Philippines from the new 'Weyak' services.

Subscribers pay Dh10 a month for news on politics, business, entertainment and sports, with updates five to six times a day.

Khalifa Al Shamsi, Etisalat Vice-President for marketing to consumers and small and medium-sized businesses, said the company wanted to offer services tailored to the UAE's various expatriate communities.

"We regularly come out with services to meet the needs of the UAE's multicultural society," he said.

Home developments

"Etisalat's portal Weyak now brings our Asian expatriate customers SMS-based news services that will keep them abreast of developments in their home countries on a continuous basis."

There are eight subscription-based breaking news services, for each of which the customer has to send a particular code to 1110.

For India news the code is INews, for Kerala news in Malayalam it is KNews, in English it is KNewsE, for Pakistan news it is PKNews, for Philippines news in Tagalog it is PHNews, for Bangladesh news it is BDNews, for Sri Lanka the code is SLNews and for Nepal it is NP News. To cancel, the customer has to send C before the code to the same number.