JEDDAH, 9 April — Call cabins of the Saudi Telecom Company (STC) can now be found on almost every major street in the Kingdom’s towns and cities, a revolution in telecommunications that has particularly benefited Saudis and expatriates who want to make international calls.
However, while customers are pleased with the number of call cabins available, they remain for the most part far from happy at the prices the have to pay. Yesterday’s announcement by STC — that the international call rates for the new prepaid chip users will be the same as existing rates for mobiles — will not bring them much cheer.
Nor will it do a great deal to stem the phenomenal growth of illegal call operations, which have also sprung up everywhere in the Kingdom and are used by thousands of customers every day.
Expatriates approached by Arab News yesterday expressed the hope that STC would reduce the international call rates for the prepaid chips as promised sooner rather than later.
Othman Ismail, an Ethiopian, said that the cost of international calls to most African countries is still extortionate: between SR8 and SR10 per minute.
“For that reason, many Africans who want to talk to their distant relatives do so through illegal channels. It costs just SR3 per minute to call to any country in the world if you do it this way. If you talk for more than five minutes, you even get a good discount on that rate,” he explained.
It is not easy to obtain information directly from those who are in the business of providing illegal telecommunications facilities. They generally distrust new clients, who have to be personally recommended by an existing one. However, from snooping around in Al-Sharifayyah, it was found out that while the calls are often made on mobile phones there are many instances of people running illegal operations from the comfort of their home — and their STC landlines.
They employ a range of devices to get the discounted rates, but especially by using “callback” numbers.
Although advertised in the international media, all such services are illegal here in the Kingdom, where STC enjoys a monopoly.
A Pakistani, who declined to give his name, complained that illegal calls provide very bad voice quality.
“It can take a number of minutes to get a free line to call abroad. Then you can’t hear the other person properly. I would imagine that if STC reduced it rates for international calls, these illegal activities would become a thing of the past because of a loss of customers,” he said.
Yusuf Hagi from Tanzania said that he used to take advantage of illegal call facilities when STC’s rate to call his home country was SR18.
“That has since been reduced to SR8, so I stick with STC now,” he said.
Filipino mechanical engineer Rafael Boni talked to Arab News about calling his home country. “The current STC rate for calls to the Philippines is SR5.50, including a 20 percent discount during off-peak hours. I remember that six years ago, it cost about SR13.”
However, this is still much more than the SR3 he would have to pay if he used the illegal facilities, though he says that he, like many Filipinos, prefer to use STC anyway, because it is more reliable and convenient.
However, not nearly reliable and convenient enough, according to the many Indians who have written to Arab News complaining of being unable to get through to major Indian cities. They could hardly be blamed, given such circumstances, if they turned to less official channels instead.
