It turned out that the price reductions I posted about yesterday are really coming and will be targeting owners of prepaid phone lines. According to this article from The Daily Star, MTC Touch is releasing 3 new recharge cards tomorrow for its Magic prepaid lines:
- Start: Priced at $10 and has 30 talking minutes (Rate is $0.33/min)
- Smart: Priced at $16.6 and has 60 talking minutes (Rate is $0.27/min)
- Super: Priced at $30 and has 120 talking minutes (Rate is $0.25/min)
Given that there will be no hidden charges, MTC Touch is offering up to 36% reduction over the current rates ($0.39/min) and Alfa is supposed to follow a similar pricing. Pretty good in my opinion though the calling rates are still considered very expensive compared to the rest of the world. I just hope some day our government stops relying on this sector to fund its treasury and leaves the two operators to really compete on prices and services.
Next on the list is launching of the 3G service, let’s pray for it to arrive on time too!
Update:
Alfa also published the new rate plans for their prepaid lines which are now called “Waffer”. Thanks to Bechara.
Nice!
Cool! 😀
Bass Ma t2oul foul …. you know the rest! 😀
Alfa started this too
I saw the ads on the highway
So I think it’s getting closer now
And about the 3G
Each summer they say : This summer we’re going to have the 3G hope we’ll get it soon and it is not one of the fake lies.
Moreover other countries are getting their 4G internet so while we’re enjoying our 3G .
In conclusion : Comunication in Lebanon sucks whatever they tried to make it better ,in my opinion
Yeah Check the link for the alfa new plan:
http://www.alfa.com.lb/pre/NewPlan.aspx
check the “Tariffs(Peak/Off Peak)” section too
I have a friend who uses his jordanian line in LB because calling on roaming using Zain is cheaper than using Alfa or MTC (fixed or pre-paid)
@Joe
Very true! Still, even if 3G is about to be outdated, if our mobile networks are able to run it then it’s better to make use of that, better than nothing.
@Bechara
Thanks for the link!
@Darine
You’ll be surprised to know that some people even use SIP (over VPN of course) because it’s cheaper than Alfa and MTC, and much cheaper than Ogero for international phone calls.
This is great news! I’ll have to get a prepaid line when I come back..although the requirements to get a pre-paid line are pretty stiff, from what I remember.. correct? Not sure if foreigners qualify?
@Danielle
Actually getting a prepaid line is very easy, it’s available at almost all cell shops for $5 or 5,000L.L I think.
Why dont you post roundups anymore?
as is heard if you have “wafer” line and run out of credit, you cannot recharge your line. You need to wait until your 30 days are up
this offer cannot be added to your existing account you should get rid off of all your credits to benefit from this one
this offer is useless 😉 another silly one from alfa and mtc
That’s still crazy expensive! At least compared to the U.S. Wow. Anyway I have a question, does a foreign iPhone 4 work in Lebanon? Is there a way to unlock it or something like that and put a pre-paid SIM card in?
Robert is correct plus you can’t transfer credit. It seems that when your 30 days are up, your line expires too. My prepaid line won’t expire for another year. How about when they did us that big favor when they changed from units to minutes and now we pay a service fee at the point of purchase and the $25 recharge is worth $22.73??? Could they simply lower the rates without playing these silly games?? The answer is apparently NO.
@Robert & @beirut drive-by
That would be a major disappointment of course! I hope it isn’t true!
@Bob
Unfortunately I’m stopping the roundups for the time being due to lack of free time, I’ll do my best to have them back as soon as possible!
FREAKING LEBANESE PPL!! payin a phone for like 700$ and whine about 20$/month.
i think the price is reasonable (haven’t u guys checked the fuel prices?!) though sms should be like unlimited. And concerning the 3G thingy mtc is launching 3.9G that’s 4G:P but why’s the debate about the 3G anyways? why don’t we call for a decent ADSL plan there’s VDSL now (and of course we know nothing about that!)
CHEERS!
Lebanon is still the most expensive country in the world, rich countries like the GCC, the rates are more cheaper than Libanon!!! the offers in the GCC countries are more better also.
Whope MTC and ALFA will do somthing about the rates in general.
thanks
Khalil
can we purchase online