Etisalat's Al Shamil service not cancelled

Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (etisalat), has denied any plan to stop its Al Shamil internet service, according to Khalifa Al Shamsi, Senior Vice-President for Marketing Affairs.

Arabic daily Emarat Al Youm quoted Al Shamsi as saying, "Our e-live bouquets received an overwhelming response from subscribers.”

Al Shamsi was negating complaints from some subscribers who said that etisalat was refusing to accept applications for new Al Shamil subscriptions.

According to Mohammed Hussein, a subscriber, “Someone from etisalat visited my house on Hamdan Street, Abu Dhabi, where he informed me that etisalat would stop the Al Shamil service.”

Hussein said the man urged him to move to the e-live service.

Mayad Fadhel, another subscriber in Abu Dhabi said he when he tried to subscribe to the Al Shamil internet service the customer service rep told him the service was suspended by etisalat.

He too claims he was urged to take an e-live package.

Mohaib Ghassan, a subscriber from Sharjah, said his applications to subscribe to the Al Shamil service were rejected as well..

Khalifa Al Shamsi of etisalat clarifies, “The bouquet of is a new additional option providing higher speeds than those available through the service of Al Shamil. Al Shamil service with speeds such as 256 and 512 kb per second are still available for subscribers”.

He said there was huge demand for high-speed packages and added that e-live meets these needs.

Al Shamsi explains, “For example, the current subscribers of Al Shamil service of 8 GB, in addition to the landline phone, is paying Dh 514 per month, but when they upgrade to e-live, they will pay Dh 204 per month for the first three months, and then  monthly fee after that of Dh 299, including landline.”