A reason to thank Etisalat

Ever since I came back from Pakistan end of October - things havent been the same primarily for the reason that I'd gotten engaged as well as what might appear to be a case of love at first sight. Its a lovely experience to be in love and its even better when you're in love with the one you're set up to marry. Yeah I'm the traditional Pakistani Munda - I let my folks have the final say in these matters. And frankly I'm glad about it Alhamdulillah :).

However one thing which is kinda hard to get over is the exorbitant phone rates to call Pakistan. My better half to be for some reason hasnt access to a PC at teh moment [ pretty weird Php guy engaged to a lady who lives offline the internet - well matches are made in heaven I believe]. 2.66 Dirhams per minute is the peak rate and off peak rates are around 1.88 dirhams. Which means that a measly 25 dirham calling card hardly gives you around 12 minutes of talk time - and considering that chatting with your better half to be can take well more than just 12 minutes you can understand where my phone charges have been going lately. Plus add to teh fact that voip is banned here only restricts my options even further. The super giant Etisalat has us covered and theres nothing we can do to bypass it :(

However just when I thought I would probably have to move out of my room and pitch a tent on Emirates road to save up enough cash to meet up for my phone charges I get an sms from Etisalat a couple weeks ago with a special offer to call Pakistan for 0.99 AED a minute upon subscription. I was like WOW I LOVE YOU GOD!!!! So I call up the helpdesk and confirm that is this true or has someone played a nasty trick on me and to my utter joy and shock I find out it is. The only downside is that its only available till the 30 of November so that means me and my fiancee just have a few more days to enjoy long night chataways. Although its still costly its nevertheless waaaay better than dishing out 2.6 times the amount. Although my phone usage has increased dramatically over the last few days - infact I dished out 700 bucks over the weekend alone - the fact that you talk much more for what you're spending really makes up for it.

So in all the chaos and rising expenditures there seems to be hope after all. And I would like to take this opportunity to say a big:

"THANK YOU ETISALAT YOU REALLY MADE MY DAY"

:and would really really appreciate if these sms offers would come by every now and then in whihc case I woudl probably say something like this:

"THANK YOU ETISALAT AGAIN! YOU REALLY MADE MY DAY AGAIN!"

Although Etisalat has a few offers such as favorite country plan and favorite number plans - the charges are still way beyond my budget to take advantage off plus they all seem to come with strings attached. Guess it serves to read the fine print - if only the one buck a minute offer could be permanent in some way...I'd gladly pay a monthly fee for it as would many Pakistani expatriates provided the fees don't stretch out into triple digits.

Reminds me gotta get back to work...