Plan to charge for incoming calls to mobiles - Kuwait

INCOMING CHARGES: Mobile phone users in Kuwait faced with more charges. (Getty Images)

Two unnamed telecommunication companies in Kuwait plan to bring back charges for incoming calls, it was revealed on Tuesday.

The companies have already informed the Ministry of Communications of their decision to assign a fee for calls made from a landline to a cellphone, which is expected to be implemented within the next few weeks, accoridng to reports in Kuwait dailies Al Rai and Arab Times.

While the operators in question remain unidentified, many believe Wataniya and Zain are involved as both made subscribers paid for incoming calls until recently.

Mobile users in Kuwait were relieved when charges were dropped by both in December last year, coinciding with the entry of third operator Viva.

"The decision is due to the enormous increase of these calls and the corresponding pressure on the network traffic since introduction of the policy in December.

Additionally, the companies are not reimbursed for this service despite the huge fees they are obliged to pay to the Communications Ministry," sources told Al Rai.

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READERS' COMMENTS

Incoming calls
Posted by Hassan on Wednesday 18 February 2009 at 14:14 UAE time


I think Kuwait is the only one country in world who is charging for incoming calls on mobile if you look around in any country all incoming calls are free and now specially when there is so much of competition they should not even think of doing same mistake again .They should not charge on incoming calls .I also like to thank VIVA for making life little easy for us because of viva today incoming calls are free otherwise you cannot even think of it .

psychological effects
Posted by Mohamed Wangengi on Tuesday 17 February 2009 at 22:24 UAE time


Before and when low on credit, i used to get really stressed when i get an international call or local call from a landline. The only logical thing is to charge the ministry's line, that means the ministry have to change the whole billing system, the current one is outdated. What Zain Kuwait and Wataniya use to do was unfair, let us not go back to that stressful era.

Err.... wot?
Posted by Rainigade, Dubai, UAE on Tuesday 17 February 2009 at 17:54 UAE time


Can someone clarify? There are two different things being mentioned here:

1. Assign a fee for calls made from a landline to a cellphone (which is basically, the caller making the call pays a fee, just like in the UAE).

2. Plan to charge for incoming calls to mobiles - which basically means that the person RECEIVING the call on the mobile has to pay!!!

If its the latter, there's just one word to describe it - RIDICULOUS!!!!!!

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