New SAWA Cards Fail to Hit Market

Javed Akhtar, Arab News

JEDDAH, 6 December 2004 — The new denomination SAWA recharge cards failed to appear in the Kingdom’s markets yesterday but the various discounts to SAWA card users announced by Saudi Telecom Company (STC) came into effect. New SAWA recharge cards of SR300 and SR50 denominations were due to hit the markets yesterday. “The new SAWA recharge cards have failed to arrive today in the market here,” said Abdul Kadir Khan, marketing manager of Darul Hatif, a major outlet in Jeddah’s main telephone market on Palestine Street. The salesman at a small shop on Tahlia Street wanted to know where I had come to know about the new denomination SAWA cards. “They are not yet available. Did you read about them in a newspaper?” Muhammad Ali asked. The story was the same all over the Kingdom, according to information available here, and people looking for the new cards were disappointed. The problem is of logistics, a senior STC official who requested anonymity, told Arab News. “Hundreds of thousands of new SAWA cards were handed over to STC’s 11 master resellers on Saturday. They will distribute them through 500 of their own sub-agents,” he said. The card details have to be fed into the computer which is a long and time-consuming process, the official said. “If the cards were available, people would have tried in vain to recharge their accounts. Only by the weekend, we hope to have the cards available all over the Kingdom,” he added. SAWA users can now make calls at 85 halalas per minute to other SAWA or Aljawal numbers instead of the old rate of SR1.2 per minute. A call to a landline or Etisalat number will cost SR1 instead of SR1.2 per minute. Local SMS now costs 25 halalas instead of 50 halalas and international SMS 60 halalas from 70 halalas per message. The old SR100 recharge cards will continue. The SR300 cards will have an additional bonus of SR33.