45,000 to 3,500,000 rials fall in sim card prices – in past 3 years

The reported fall is between 450 to 3,300 rials and sim cards are expected from next year to be handed out free by operators.
Around March 2005, the prices of new state-owned sim cards with codes 2, 3, 5, 6 and Taliya were 8,800, 8,600, 8,400, 8,100 and 900 thousand rials respectively.
The prices fell slightly by February 2006 following further sim cards distribution, but applicants still had to wait to receive their sim cards.
However, with the frequent distribution of state-owned sim cards and a new Second operator in the past three years, the prices have plunged substantially.
Currently, the price of the above-mentioned sim cards stand as 5,700, 5,200, 3,800, 3,500 and 450 thousand rials respectively.
First and Second mobile phone operators have in total 40 million pre- and postpaid subscribers, while Taliya has 912,000.
According to the MCI minister Mohammad Soleimani, with Third operator sim cards coming on the market sometime in the spring of 2009, the sim card market will be quite saturated.
The idea of free sim card handout by mobile phone operators would then not be so far-fetched.

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