STARCOMMS INTRODUCES SPECIAL ISLAMIC HANDSET

In the spirit of celebrating the holy month of Ramadan, Nigeria’s leading telecommunications operator, Starcomms Plc is offering its Muslim customers the opportunity of purchasing and owning a unique handset, Qiblah, exclusively equipped with integrated features that are tailor-made to meet the needs of fasting and praying Muslims.
The introduction of the handset by Starcomms comes as little surprise, considering the company’s track-record of availing its customers with innovative products and services that always anticipate their needs and requirements.The new phone has an indicator setting that point to Mecca and comes complete with a compass and prayer time alarm functions. The Qiblah indicator uses an inbuilt longitude and latitude orientation or city references that, when used in comparison to the magnetic north, indicates the direction of the Qiblah so that the Muslim can, from any place he is, know in what direction to face and pray. The Qiblah in Islam is the compass that shows the direction that Muslims face to pray wherever they are. Also, Starcomms has introduced a promotional airtime package for the benefit of customers who purchase the handset. They are to enjoy discounted calls during off peak periods and low cost calls to Saudi Arabia during the Ramadan period. Other customers of Starcomms are also to enjoy discounted calls on off peak and low cost calls during the period.Speaking on the functionality of the Qiblah phones, Mr. Tushar Maheshwari, Chief Commercial Officer of Starcomms noted that very often it is difficult to determine the four cardinal points when one is constantly on the move. Therefore, it may not be easy to determine the Qiblah when it is time to pray for a Muslim whose routine requires moving around. With the aid of the compass installed in the phone, a Muslim customer of Starcomms can easily know which direction to face at prayer time.The Qiblah phones are designed with colourful Islamic visual features, such as lovely wall papers and screen savers as well as inspiring ring-tones. The phone is also a channel for the customer to enjoy the Listen-To-Quran service of Starcomms, which is the first of its kind in the country. The service is designed to update and increase the knowledge of Muslim customers on the tenets of Islam as well as allow them have access to the Holy book anytime anywhere on their Starcomms phones. Customers can access Listen-To-Quran by simply dialing *786 on their Starcomms phones to access the IVR mode to select any particular Surah of Holy Quran and continue listening at fixed cost of N25 per hour.Maheshwari explained that Starcomms has often paid attention to the needs of particular sections of the society stating that during festive periods, it gave special packages to its customers.