RIYADH, 2 July — Internet Service Providers will begin implementing from today the new discounted rates ranging from 42-71 percent allowed by King Abdul Aziz City for Science and Technology and 50 percent from the Saudi Telecom Company.
Saleh Al-Jasser, general manager of the STC, hoped that the discounted rates should enable the 28 ISPs in the Kingdom to offer better subscription rates to their customers.
He, however, clarified that there will not be any change in the dial-up rates, which will continue to be SR 3 per hour. They are the same as the normal local rates of five halalas per minute. When told that the Internet subscription rates are the highest in the Gulf region, Al-Jasser said the Gulf states have “heavily subsidized” local rates which give them an unfair advantage over the STC rates.
However, in some European countries and the United States, the Internet charge is the same as the local rates, which are higher than those charged in the Kingdom.
Speaking on behalf of the Arabnet, a Jeddah-based ISP, Anwar Helmi, its marketing manager, said that with STC charging SR3 per hour for the dial-up service, it is not possible for the ISPs to reduce their rates for the end-user. At best, he could expect a 20 percent reduction in subscription charges from SR130-140 in the past to SR 100. But there will not be any discount on the dial-up charges.
He said the ISPs cannot do anything without STC making a pitch to reduce its charges to the customer.
According to Kais Al-Essa, operations and technical services manager of Sahara Network in Dammam, the cost of providing Internet services to ISPs since its inception has been so high that none of the ISPs was able to break even until they had high international capacities.
