Gays and Lesbians Leading the Nation in Mobile Internet Usage

Some new data was just published showing that gays and lesbians are among the leading groups in the nation when it comes to mobile internet usage. And no, hours spent on Grindr was not one of the survey metrics. It turns out that we're more likely than the general population to own Smartphones, and more than twice as likely to make purchases from them. In fact, in the past week, 28% of us have made a purchase using our Smartphone, 63% of us have found info on a local business using it, and 36% of us have used it to receive or redeem deals or specials like Groupons. The data was published in 5th Annual LGBT Community Survey by Community Marketing, Inc., which can be found here. 

Global smartphone market penetration to exceed 50% by 2015

Read more here. 


Smartphones certainly are not going anywhere. People who want to learn the
technology skills to develop future smartphones can find info on classes
via Guide to Online Schools.

99 fils/min Calls to South Asian Subcontinent on Wasel

Wasel subscribers, would you like cheaper calls and extended off peak hours for calling the South Asian subcontinent? Now you have it. Today we announced a new promotion offering you the heavily discounted rate of 99 fils per minute when calling India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal. The off peak hours have also been extended to 5pm to 9am, Saturday to Thursday and all day on Friday.

This promotion runs throughout the summer and is valid until the 19th September. To subscribe simply, send an SMS saying “e 99” to 1010 from the Wasel number. Other national and international calls are not affected.

For more information on Wasel offers, customers can call 800 PROMO (77666) or visit www.etisalat.ae/idd.

Recharge while Roaming with Etisalat

Wasel Prepaid customers can now recharge their mobile accounts whilst they're on the go in different countries around the world. The new service has been introduced in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, with more destinations to be included soon.

Customers can top up their mobile accounts via recharge cards while they’re away from home. They can easily use the same recharging scratch cards or vouchers that are being used in the visited country to add credit to their account. Customers that need to recharge can dial *134*pin number# and press the call key. The credit purchased will be converted and available to customers in UAE Dirhams. Upon recharge, customers can also check their credit balance by calling *121#.


Recharge while Roaming is a new alternative to recharging Wasel accounts, in addition to the current available options such as recharging online, mobile payments, and auto pay that allows customers to get their Wasel recharged automatically in regular intervals, upon a pre-set configuration.

Khalifa Al Shamsi, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Etisalat: "This new value-added offering allows Etisalat’s prepaid roaming customers to easily top up their accounts in the same way as they do in the UAE.”