iPhone goes on sale in UAE

The Apple iPhone was available in stores this morning, with Etisalat sales staff setting up special sales booths in retail outlets including Virgin Megastores and iStyle, an officially licensed Apple reseller. Etisalat is selling the device unlocked, meaning owners can use the phone on the du network and with other international operators. But customers wishing to cancel their contract will be required to pay penalty fees. These charges could be up to Dh7000, depending on the package chosen. Etisalat offers two packages where the customer effectively pays up front for the phone; on these deals only a Dh300 termination fee is charged. On other plans where the handset price is subsidised, customers must pay out the full 12 months of fees. Sales staff at Etisalat outlets said customers who already own the new generation of iPhones, acquired overseas or through grey-market importers, can switch to the special iPhone packages without buying a new handset. They also said customers can switch between the different pricing plans. Each package includes a set amount of voice calling minutes, text messages and data downloads. When customers exceed these limits, calls and text messages are charged at the standard rate paid by prepaid and postpaid customers. Additional data downloads above the set limit are charged at Dh0.65 per 75 kilobytes, or Dh8.66 per megabyte, sales staff said. tgara@thenational.ae