Airtel has announced that between now and October 31, 2012, their subscribers who will be on this year’s pilgrimage to Mecca will receive whooping discount on calls and data usage through Zain Saudi Arabia. Airtel also says that the family and friends of pilgrims in Ghana can also call their relatives in Saudi Arabia for as low as 0.005GHC a second, which comes to 30Gp per minute. Airtel said in a statement “the pilgrims and the family and friends in Ghana can also take the opportunity to get in touch with family and friends in United Arab Emirates, Pakistan and Kuwait.” Head of Corporate Communications and External Affairs of Airtel Ghana, Donald Gwira was quoted as saying “Airtel recognizes that we do have a number of our subscribers who will be going to Mecca or those who might want to reach out to other people in the UAE, Pakistan and Kuwait and of course Saudi area; so what we have done is to facilitate this process and keep the conversations of our subscribers going despite the distance”, he said. Mr. Gwira explained that Airtel has strategic alliances with partners across the world and the company activates some of these partnerships in the interest of customers. “We seek to be the most loved brand in the lives of Ghanaians and we know that there are a lot of little things we can do to make life comfortable and easy for our growing list of subscribers,” he said. Airtel Ghana recently announced that subscribers within the company’s 17 African countries can make calls without bothering about roaming charges.