Business - UAE;Mobile phone service for expat labour force

DUBAI: A new mobile phone service especially targeting primarily the large expatriate labour force of Indians and other Asians in the United Arab Emi
rates (UAE) has been launched.

The Permanent Committee of Labour Affairs in Dubai and leading UAE telecom service provider Du have announced the launch of 'alo', a unique 'pay as you go' mobile service, specially developed for the large expatriate labour workforce in the UAE.

The new mobile package has been customised keeping in mind the unique communication needs of this segment and to enable easier communications between the workers and committee, according to the official Emirates News Agency (WAM).

“We are committed to improving the quality of life of the labour segment in the UAE whose valuable contribution to nation-building we recognise and appreciate,” Ahmad Al Marri, chairman of the Permanent Committee of Labour Affairs in Dubai, said.

“With the launch of 'alo', we have also opened a new line of communication between the labour workforce and our committee and we are here to listen to their feedback. We highly recommend 'alo' to all the companies who employ such expat labour workers,” he added.

Indians form the largest chunk of expatriate labour force in the UAE comprising 42.5 percent of the country's total labour force and 65 percent of them are in the blue collar category.

“'alo' is a corporate social responsibility initiative from Du to design a customised communication tool that will directly benefit the large expatriate labour workforce,” Osman Sultan, chief executive of Du, said.

“The 'alo' brand is designed keeping in mind the needs of the expat labour workforce primarily from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Egypt, China etc. who work for the construction companies here and live in labour camps,” he stated.

'alo' comes with a multilingual user guide in the SIM pack.

The SIM pack is also contained in a wallet, which the labour worker can use to store and port his money.

Tailored to fit the financial needs of this workforce, Du has designed the mobile package to have no high one time or annual fees - in other words, there will be no joining fees and renewal fees but the money would be collected in easy monthly installments of 5 dirhams (Rs65).

An initial credit of 10 dirhams (Rs130) has been included to enable the users to get started immediately.