High Telephone Charges Are a Major Obstacle to Internet Expansion

DAMMAM, 14 April 2003 — The Internet arrived late in the Kingdom compared to many Gulf countries, and its arrival was marred by several restrictions. At one point, subscription charges in the Kingdom were among the highest in the world. With several petitions by the ISPs and media reports, the King Abdul Aziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) eventually slashed prices and removed some of the restrictions.

However, one of the main concerns of subscribers — telephone rates — remained unchanged. Internet call charges in the Kingdom could well be the highest in the world. STC has introduced some discount packages, but subscribers feel that charges should be slashed by at least half.

With such high charges, customers expect better service and fast connections. However, many Internet subscribers have a plethora of complaints against several ISPs, ranging from speed to connectivity, charges and customer support services. There have also been complaints about prepaid Internet cards of several denominations sold at various outlets.

One of the major complaints is overcharging by the retailers. Ashraf, an Indian national, bought an Internet prepaid card for one month unlimited use from a retail shop in Dammam for SR90 and later found that it was actually for SR70.

Saad found his newly bought prepaid card unusable. “I configured the card and tried to dial but every time I got a set message ‘User name or password invalid.’”

Saad contacted the retailer, who said he could not help since the card was sealed and had not been tampered with and hence was no responsibility of his.

The worst scenario is at Internet cafes. Charges used to range between SR10 and SR20 per hour. Today, generally cafes are charging SR5 per hour, with some charging as little as SR4 per hour and providing facilities like webcam and voice chat. Others are still charging between SR10 and SR20 per hour for their ambience and facilities.

The main complaint against Internet cafes is slow speed and connectivity. “In one cafe I have to wait for 15 minutes to open my site, and by the time the site is open the connection has terminated, and then I have to repeat the whole process,” said Samir, a frequent visitor of Internet cafes.

The consensus among subscribers and cafe customers is that KACST should set up bodies to carry out frequent checks on services as well as periodically review the entire Internet mechanism in the country.