The Jordanian National Society for Consumer Protection, a non governmental organization which seeks to raise public awareness on consumer problems, said it will employ SMS as a medium to provide citizens with guidelines that will improve their knowledge about consumer related issues and better their consumption patterns. This will be done through Fastlink’s network, one of MTC companies.
“The National Society for Consumer Protection which started using the latest technologies, is seeking to spread its message through modern means of communication. And the SMS service is one such example,” said its president Mohammad Obeidat. He added that the service aims at reaching a wide segment of consumers in a direct and speedy manner.
Spreading public awareness on consumption issues is one of the main objectives of the NSCP in a country that has witnessed successive price hikes in recent months against a background of soaring world oil prices.
Obeidat added that the society will present Fastlink users with the needed guidelines and instructions via SMS, noting that such information is related to the society’s scope of work. They can be obtained form the NSCP’s database.
Fastlink Mobile Data services manager Mr. Ziad Masri said that citizens’ interests’ matters to the company, noting that the number of subscribers has exceeded 2 million. Therefore, he noted that reinforcing a culture of consumption awareness, where citizens can compare prices and the quality of goods will help them make better choices daily.
Subscribers to the SMS service can make use of the daily info that covers the prices and quality of the goods and services any where and any time. Those who wish to use the service can dial 96061 with the word M.
The service will allow consumers from all segments of society to make better decisions regarding their daily purchases. They will also know where the goods are sold and this will help them save time and money.
The NSCP aims at raising public awareness on consumer problems, and to work with the national and scientific institutions to provide the needed solutions. The society also works on fighting monopoly and price manipulation.
About Fastlink
Jordan Mobile Telephone Services Company Ltd. “Fastlink”, founded in 1995, was the first operator to introduce mobile phone services into Jordan. In just a few years, the company earned its reputation as the most progressive telecom operator in the region in terms of competitiveness and readiness to adopt new technologies and deploy cutting-edge services. Since its inception, Fastlink has tallied subscriber growth at an exponential rate, with the number of users currently exceeding 2 million subscribers. Through more than 1,700 cell sites, Fastlink covers the entire populated area of the Kingdom. In January 2003, Mobile Telecommunications Company K.S.C. (MTC) acquired Fastlink in what was considered the largest single acquisition in the Middle East area, and the largest private sector investment in Jordan.
For more information, please visit our site, www.fastlink.jo
About MTC Group
MTC is the pioneer of mobile telecommunications in the Middle East and now a major player on the African continent. We began life in 1983 in Kuwait as the region’s first mobile operator, and since the initiation of our “3x3x3” expansion strategy in 2002, we have expanded rapidly.
As a leading mobile and data services operator in 6 Middle Eastern and 14 sub-Saharan African countries with 9000 employees, we provide a comprehensive range of mobile voice and data services to over 21 million individual and business customers.
We operate in Kuwait and Bahrain as mtc-vodafone, in Jordan as Fastlink, in Iraq as mtc atheer, in Lebanon as mtc touch, in Sudan as Mobitel and in 14 sub-Saharan countries in Africa as Celtel: Burkina Faso, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Kenya, Malawi, Madagascar, Niger, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Nigeria.
Listed on the Kuwait Stock Exchange (Code; Tele), MTC’s market capitalization exceeded US$11.8 billion as of May 1st 2006. For more visit: www.mtctelecom.com
