Mobily vs Jawal

Recently due to some unfortunate circumstances my Jawal STC mobile number was disconnected and I had to change my number. So I had option of going for STC, mobily or Zain. Zain is very new and I was in no mood of experimentation. So I was left with mobily vs Jawal.

People all around, encouraged me to go for mobily. Reason: its economical and services in general are a lot better. So I did.

Well the customer service of mobily is a loooooooot better then STC. Getting connected to a representative in thier call center is lightning fast. They are courteous, yes courtesy in Saudi arabia! Their technical know how is not that great, but I can live with that.

In quality of network, well they don't score that well. Calling Pakistan is a nightmare. It seems like they are making use of VOIP extensively. The receiver will not get your correct number and the voice quality sucks big time.

SMS is another problem. Either the recipient will not get your message or you will not get their replies.

Maybe mobily is economically more viable but if the core technologies (voice/sms) have problems then I think STC wins by large

Update 1st March 2009
Guess what? You cannot call 0800 toll free numbers from mobily :P Since its a STC service I guess it will never allow access from mobily :(