Zain Roaming Services

Some time last week, the guys at Zain decided to UPDATE their system. One of the result of the update (that I know of) is that the Roaming Service has been split. Now the subscriber has the option to choose between Voice & SMS Roaming or Voice, SMS & Data Roaming.

What the update did was – all subscribers were given Voice & SMS Roaming by default and Data Roaming was deactivated. If a subscriber wants Data services while roaming, Zain will activate that too, but on receiving the subscriber’s request.

The Problem - People who were already using Data services on roaming (and are out of Kuwait) didn’t know about this and their BlackBerry’s would no longer register on EDGE. Only GSM coverage!

My sister (who is in Bombay, using her Kuwait line) told me that her BlackBerry just stopped working. I called up Zain’s call centre here and they assured me everything was fine from here.

I figured perhaps the SIM card could be corrupted, so yesterday decided to go and get a replacement SIM card for the same number and would switch it when I go to Bombay this weekend.

When I spoke to the counter staff at Zain’s office (very helpful), I was told about the update. I asked him to activate Data roaming as well. Called up my sister and asked her to restart her BlackBerry. EDGE is on, BlackBerry working fine.

I don’t really see the benefit in splitting the Roaming Services like this, but for whatever reason they did it, the least they could do was inform the subscriber before the switch!