Middle East & North Africa Telecommunications

KUWAIT: Many old Ramadan habits and traditions have changed with time. Every year when the holy month of Ramadan comes, people used to congratulate each other personally. For those who are far away, they used to send greeting cards by mail. Later, some people simplified the greetings through phone instead of visits. They saved time as they became busier. During the last few years the SMS and later the MMS (multi media messages supporting pictures) technologies became popular. People recently have got used to this method of sending messages instead of telephone calls.
This method is even faster and cheaper than telephone calls. You don’t have to put much effort to create the message. There are ready greetings available as a service from the mobile services providers. And the receiver will get ready greeting for few fils. He then is able to forward this message even for all people on his phonebook by one click.
The Ramadan message greetings are a fashion. In Kuwait people are competing to send special and unique messages. “It’s a necessary evil in my opinion. It brought people near electronically, while telephone calls bring people near emotionally. Still I can’t stop using this service. I used to subscribe for the sms services provided by the mobile company. But I cancel my subscription, as they were charging me about KD 80 monthly, which is very high. This Ramadan I sent more than 30 sms, and I received many of them as well,” said Huda, a 35-year-old employee.
The sms messages are an economic solution for the expats. “I really appreciate the modern technology for providing this great service, which gave me the chance to send messages for all my relatives in my home country. Before I couldn’t afford calling all my relatives as the international calls are expensive. So I had to call only the closest and send my regards with them,” said Khalid, an Arab national.
Some people don’t care to send sms messages, not even during the occasions. Others send only for certain people. “I sent many sms messages at the first day of Ramadan. I sent these messages only to the far away people. The people I see everyday, I greet them personally and didn’t send any messages,” said Abdulatif.
The mobile telecommunication providers are cashing in on this service. These companies provide different subscriptions for their services. The invite people to use their services, but some times don’t mention the price, which the subscriber will later find high. These seasonal occasions are good opportunity for these companies, and many people use it.