Viva La Vida ?
Its just over 3 months since Viva started fully operating in Kuwait and I’m wondering if its going as well as it should be. When Viva first announced its launch I have to admit they really put on a good campaign. Newspaper and billboard adverts were everywhere - we all knew about it. But the pick of their marketing campaign had to be the chance to choose your own mobile number on-line. Everyone seemed to get into it - including me. What a clever idea !
I picked up my Viva pre-pay number back in January but still kept my old number (with Wataniya) and from the evidence so far I’m glad I did ! One of my good friends made the switch over and its just been a pain whenever I call him. Several times we have either been disconnected mid conversation or his voice becomes robotic - just like in the Kanye West songs !!
Then I found out recently that Viva is renting network bandwidth from Zain and Wataniya while it puts its own network up ! So that probably explains it as I would be surprised if Viva’s competitors would let it use the best part of its network (if you know what I mean ?).
This is on top of the fact that calls to other networks seem generally more expensive with Viva. For a standard monthly contract Viva charges 35 fils/min whereas Wataniya charges 30 fils/min peak time and 15 fils/ min off peak. Of course Viva has the talk free after 5 mins but that’s only between Viva customers.
I think Viva’s entry has helped the consumer here in Kuwait. They really shook up the mobile industry by announcing that all received calls would be free, effectively forcing the other companies to follow. But until their service and prices improve (which I’m sure they eventually will) I’m going to be sticking to my old number for now.
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VERY true.. i used mine the first few days and i lost it after that.. but that’s expected.. it being a new network and all.. it’ll get better soon.. hopefully
indeed the have what is called site sharing agreements with the other 2, but on a limited number of sites (at least for zain)
yup i’ve experienced the robot voice thing and while it’s cool and funny and first, it quickly gets annoying
good call on not throwing your number away just yet, but word on the street is that zain is the best out of all 3 altogether.. maybe it’s because they have genius staff…. ;)
I would actually consider moving to Zain if companies here allowed subscribers to keep their numbers when switching operators (like they do in Europe).
aha - number portability. moc would have to impose that, and in my opinion it’s just a matter of time, but it will take a while since our ministries arent bursting with efficiency