UAE's leading telecom services operator Etisalat has launched its revolutionary start/stop data service for prepaid customers under which mobile data will be available for only 2 fils/minute.

The service, launched for the first time in the region, is expected to foster a complete new usage behaviour of short-period on-demand mobile internet access, making data easy-to-use and affordable for all UAE prepaid subscribers, said a statement from Etisalat.

Khaled El Khouly, the chief consumer officer, said: "It will be a game changer for the industry making data usage accessible to all prepaid subscribers and most of all affordable. Time-based data access with pay per minute charging has not been launched on a commercial scale as we have done here."

"By dialing *777# customers can Start or Stop a data session, and charging will be done only for the minutes in between, with no volume limit on usage – so no need to worry about MBs or GBs anymore," he explained.

"Data speed will be limited to 1Mbps during any Start/ Stop data session. This is more than adequate for accessing any mobile optimized site, uploading/ downloading rich content, or streaming videos," stated El Khouly.

According to him, with the start/stop data, customers will benefit from lower spend because of the flexible short periods of data access, while having excellent customer experience with unlimited access to all sites at a very good speed.

"We are confident customers will enjoy this innovative new data service that gives them the agility to use and pay as per their usage," he added.-TradeArabia News Service