Touch Introduces More Affordable 4.5G Advanced Data Plans

Complementing Minister of Telecommunications Butros Harb request on 14 September 2016 to introduce further tariff reductions for data services and in line with the Ministry of Telecom’s Vision 2020, Bader al-Kharafi, Chairman of Lebanon mobile operator touch, and Vice Chairman of Zain Group, announced today a comprehensive range of data plans that cater to the needs of all consumers in Lebanon.

The new tariff plans, which include marked pricing reductions up to 40%, require approval from the Ministry of Telecommunications, expected to happen shortly. Upon final ministerial approval, the new plans will be effective during the month of October, 2016.

Commenting on the introduction of the new tariffs, al-Kharafi stated: “Touch and Zain Group are working closely with the Lebanese Ministry of Telecommunications to ensure consumers across the country enjoy the life-enhancing opportunities that high-speed mobile data services offer. This more affordable initiative announced today will result in more of the Lebanese community having access to the power of the internet and becoming part of the global digital community.”

The Chairman continued, “Together with the Ministry, we will continue to push digital innovation and enhance the country’s telecommunications sector to achieve the Ministry’s Vision 2020 ambitions.”

Touch leveraged its market leading consumer knowledge and insights with the expansive experience and expertise of Zain Group to enhance the existing data plans in Lebanon. The introduction of ‘social data bundle’, ‘post-paid data snacks’, and the ‘daily data bundle’, are all unique additions specifically aimed to encourage data users to connect to non-voice services in a way that they previously never did in the past.

The social bundle caters for customers seeking social media access at an affordable monthly rate of US$7, while the post-paid data snacks are targeted at customers who may run out of their allocated data consumption prior to the commencement of their next billing cycle and require a data top-up.

Meanwhile, the WhatsApp bundle has been enhanced to offer more data and is available for US$5 for 250MB of data. The corporate data plan, which is aimed at enterprise customers, is available for US$149 per month for 100GB, representing a 40% discount on the existing tariff.

The plans and tariff modifications announced by touch today follow a recent launch of two additional market leading data bundles. In July this year, touch launched the “Web & Talk Light” post-paid plan for US$49 per month and the “Web & Talk Elite” bundle for US$199, which offers a generous data allocation of 15GB for high-usage customers.