JEDDAH, 27 November 2002 — Saudi Telecom Company yesterday announced major cuts in mobile and Internet phone charges as well as in national and international phone call tariffs. The announcement said mobile phone connection charges will be slashed from SR300 to SR100.
Acting Minister of Posts, Telegraphs and Telephones Khaled Al-Gosaibi said charges for calls from land phones to mobile will be reduced on April 1, 2003, from 80 to 50 halalas per minute at peak hours and to 40 halalas at off-peak hours.
Charges for national calls will be reduced to 50 halalas per minute at peak hours and 25 halalas at off-peak hours to distances exceeding 200 kilometers. Calls within 200 kilometers would be charged 20 halalas at peak hours and 10 halalas at off-peak hours from April 1.
Gosaibi said telephone charges for Internet use will be reduced by 25 percent from Feb. 1, 2003. However, he said Internet users must pay SR10 monthly in advance to avail of this discount. The Finance and National Economy Ministry and Saudi Telecom Authority have approved the new discounted rates.
The minister also disclosed plans to cut mobile phone connection charges from SR300 to SR100 from Jan. 1, 2003 and reduce mobile phone charges from 80 to 50 halalas per minute at peak hours and from 50 to 40 halalas at off-peak from April 4.
The company has also decided to increase the number of minutes in the Silver Bouquet cards from 80 minutes to 100 and reduce the charge after this period from 70 to 40 halalas per minute. It also decided to increase the number of minutes in the Golden Bouquet cards from 280 to 400 and reduce the charges from 60 halalas to 35 halalas per minute from April 1.
“With the new cuts, mobile phone charges in the Kingdom will be the lowest in the Middle East and the Gulf region,” Gosaibi said.
Referring to international telephone charges, Gosaibi said they will be cut by an average 15 percent effective from July 1. The new cuts will not cover pre-paid cards and vary from one country to the other.
The announcement to cut phone tariffs comes after the government decided to float 30 percent of STC shares for public subscription. As per the decision 90 million shares will be sold at the rate of SR170 per share beginning Dec. 17.
STC was separated from the Ministry of Posts, Telegraphs and Telephones and founded as an independent company in 1998 with a capital of SR12 billion. The company said it made a profit of SR2.8 billion in the past nine months. Its third quarter revenues amounted to SR17.4 billion, 17 percent more than last year.
Telecommunications is one of the 20 major sectors listed by the government for privatization. The government last year approved a bill, which was passed by the Shoura Council, to end the state’s monopoly of the telecom sector without ruling out the participation of foreign investors.
