DAMMAM, 31 March — Telephone prepaid cards as well as Internet access cards are playing havoc with users. People in the Eastern Province are complaining that they are being taken for granted by many companies and that the services are amateurish and substandard.

The popularity of the Internet in the Kingdom has grown by leaps and bounds and the Internet service providers (ISPs) are unable to cope with the number of subscribers who now run into hundreds and thousands. A similar increase has been seen in the number of ISPs as well. But in addition to registered ISPs, there are many card telephone companies providing Internet service with their telephone cards.

Most of the prepaid telephone cards are valid for national and international calls and also for accessing the Internet. Many of these prepaid card companies have already earned a reputation for chaotic telephone service and now they are doing the same with the Internet. In addition to these prepaid telephone card companies, many ISPs have also launched card services exclusively for Internet use. These cards are normally in one of two groups: Limited time and unlimited time. The unlimited card, unlike the limited one, can be used for a month for 24 hours a day. Since these ISPs are already involved in fierce competition, the price of the cards fluctuates. For example, two months ago an unlimited time card was SR140 while some ISP’s now offer the same card for SR99. The same holds true for the limited time cards.

Some ISPs have very unsatisfactory service. For instance, one requires the customer to call a toll-free number to activate an account. Getting connected to the toll-free number, however, is another problem and not infrequently, the person answering the call is unable to help. The problem is even greater if one wants to activate his account at night. Another problem is the availability of Net cards. For example, if the user has a card and is satisfied with the service, he would obviously want to buy the same card again. But he may not find the same card since, for a variety of reasons, the company has failed to supply cards to dealers. Naseej Internet is an example; in the Eastern Province, Naseej has only one distributor and if for any reason, the distributor fails to distribute the cards, then the user is in trouble.

The worst problem is slow accessibility and overcrowded servers. In a nutshell, if a user buys a limited time card, he or she may lose half the time by waiting to access sites or waiting for sites to open.

The worst service is for the telephone card, which can also access the Internet. Normally it is very difficult to access any site with these phone cards. Some of them are prone to errors and in many cases the user wastes time without ever being connected. My personal experience with one such phone card is all too typical. The card was for SR25 and I succeeded in opening my Hotmail account only once with that card.

Both King Abdul Aziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) and Saudi Telecom Company should keep an eye on these services with monthly or bimonthly reviews of performance. No doubt Internet cards are handy and they are the future for individual users so the need exists to make them more user-friendly and result-oriented. In a market already experiencing fierce competition, it is absolutely essential that ISPs improve their service and make it more professional.

What these companies have to understand is that the user is more concerned with the service rather than the price. Price is surely important but a cheap card with no service and dismal performance is worse than nothing. The competition should thus be more concentrated on service. Consumers have already lost faith in prepaid telephone cards and the prepaid Internet card companies should learn from the experience and adopt a more professional approach.