RIYADH, 13 March — Saudi Telecom Company is making intense preparations to introduce the much-awaited prepaid mobile chips service. It has already supplied its subscription offices throughout the Kingdom with the special equipment required for issuing the chips.
Informed STC sources told Arab News that the company will charge SR200 for the service.
“People will be able to recharge their cards after the free calls provided by the company,” the sources said, adding that recharge cards will also be marketed shortly.
The recharge cards will be available in three denominations — SR100, SR200 and SR300 — and the calling charge will be the same as ordinary mobile phone calls.
The new service, which is likely to be introduced in the second quarter of this year, will help expatriate customers dispense with the requirements of Saudi sponsors and bank guarantees.
The company has cut the connection fee for ordinary mobiles from SR500 to SR300, and for family mobiles from SR400 to SR300.
At present, there are more than 2.7 million mobile phone subscribers in the Kingdom. The number increases by 130,000 monthly.
Finnish company Nokia and Sweden’s Ericsson have won contracts worth SR2.85 billion to implement the Kingdom’s fifth mobile expansion project which will add three million mobile lines to the present network that covers more than 100 cities and townships and major highways in the country.
STC recently announced the expansion in the coverage area of DSL Internet Access Service. DSL service allows users to connect to their ISPs at high speed. No special cabling is required because the service works on ordinary phone lines. With this service, users can browse the web and talk on the phone at the same time.
