Abu Dhabi, Asharq Al-Awsat- Emirates Telecommunications Corporation- etisalat- has slashed rates for its mobile customers to sign up for FIFA World Cup 2006 updates on their mobile phones through MMS or SMS. etisalat mobile customers can also register for MMS and 3G ‘Mubashir’ services for free until July 15th 2006. All those who signed up for this service were entered into a draw, and until now there have been 50 winners, each of whom received a Nokia N70 mobile handset.

Essa Al Haddad, Chief Marketing Officer, etisalat, said: “We are happy to enable our customers to reach updates of the most exciting sporting event going on, and with this price reduction, we are sure that even more interested customers can receive the latest scores and match outcomes. Subscribers to the MMS update service can even receive pictures and video clips of goals of exciting moments during the matches on their mobile phone.”

“The promotion that we ran alongside has already seen 50 winners, and we look forward to many more people winning the Nokia N70 handset”, he added.

Subscribing to the World Cup SMS service allows mobile subscribers to receive the latest news of the championship. Subscription to this service is now AED 10 and can be done by sending an SMS to 1155 including the initial two letters of the desired language (AR for Arabic, EN for English, FR for French).

The World Cup MMS service will deliver all the action pictures of the matches to customers. Customers can subscribe by sending SMS to 1151, including the initial two letters of their preferred language (AR, EN, or FR). The cost of this service is now AED 25.