A few hours before the flight I realized that my blackberry phone doesn’t have international calling or roaming, I do have the international blackberry service from Zain but it wouldn’t really be too useful if I didn’t have international calling or roaming. I called 107 and asked them about activating international roaming and calling with Civil ID in hand, the gentlemen on the line kept repeating that I had to go to the branch no matter what I said and the airport branch was the only one open on Friday, and the tough part is that my flight was from Sheikha Sa’ad Airport and not the main one, so it was a bit out of the way. I went to the branch in the afternoon as soon as I was done with that call, walked in and saw about 30 odd people in front of me, and it was going at a snails pace.

I called them up again whil I was there, told them this is ridiculous, I’m not waiting 2 hours to get something so simple done, I asked what would be the case if I was out of the country, then they said I would fax a letter with a copy of my civil ID asking them to activate the services, only while I’m out of the country. So I thought of it, left the que which still had at least 30 people in it.

When I got home I wrote a letter asking them to activate these services and all the details they required. Within an hour the service was active from the convenience of my home, that is much better then the long wait. I’m assuming for activating services such as these your better off doing it this way instead of wasting your time at the branch.

What you need:

• Copy of Civil ID
• On the copy stating you want Int. Roaming and Calling activated
• Stating you are traveling and needs this urgently
• Signature, Date, Time, and Again Civil ID number
• Then fax all of that to Zain on one piece of paper preferably

I think this went to a fax server so they store the document as evidence requested the service. I think this is much simpler then going to any branch when your short on time or don’t feel like going.