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Haj Pilgrims Send Mobily Usage to Record High

JEDDAH - Nearly 1.6 million pilgrims used Mobily’s services until Wednesday, and Humoud Al-Ghobaini, Mobily’s spokesperson, said the number was the highest representing 22 per cent increase compared to last year.

By Habib Shaikh

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Published: Fri 12 Dec 2008, 2:04 AM

Last updated: Sun 5 Apr 2015, 11:21 AM

Mobily said in a press release that its network usage rose by 20 per cent compared to last year’s season, according to figures as of Friday, thanks to increased usage by pilgrims from abroad. It added that it expects these numbers to rise even further during the remaining days of Haj.

Mobily is offering more than two million gifts to Haj pilgrims. The giveaways include 750,000 umbrellas, the same number of water bottles and likewise bags at the holy sites of Mina, Arafat and Muzdalifah, as well as at airports, seaports and border crossings, and checkpoints.

Mobily has already started distributing the gifts, which will continue through Thursday.

Chief Executive Khalid Al-Kaf, who was on duty at the holy sites, is constantly following up on the progress of Mobily’s work, keeping track of the company’s locations at the holy sites, as well as the Network Operations Centre (NOC) control room in Aziziyah.

Mobily said earlier that it had boosted its network capacity at the holy sites by more than 30 per cent compared to the previous Haj season.

The company added two main stations and 76 more relay stations, boosting network capacity to more than three million simultaneous users — more than the projected number of pilgrims expected to be at the holy sites.

According to a statement, this increase in the number of roaming users is only for its own network and does not include that of Zain’s. It added that Mobily and Zain have signed a site sharing agreement, as well as a local roaming agreement, whereas Zain will use Mobily’s state-of-the-art infrastructure until its own network is up and running.

Mobily has many services on offer for the pilgrims, such as free Internet connectivity through WiFi at the holy sites. The company is also giving away millions of awareness brochures and dispatching millions of SMS messages in an awareness campaign. The company also added new features to its Rihal package, which enjoys popularity among pilgrims.

habibshaikh@khaleejtimes.com