JEDDAH, 12 October 2004 — Saudi Telecom will introduce new discounts on its mobile, land phone, SAWA, SMS and Internet services within the next two lunar months of Ramadan (which begins Oct. 15) and Shawwal, Dr. Muhammad Al-Suwaiyel, governor of the Communications and Information Technology Commission announced yesterday.
Two types of discounts will be provided for the Internet service, Suwaiyel said. The first makes the service free as clients can have access to the network without subscribing to any particular Internet Service Provider, he said. Under this service, clients surfing the Internet will pay only the local telephone charge and the STC will pay part of this amount to the ISPs.
“Under the second package, the client will bear the cost of ISP subscription as well as the cost of contacting the Internet, which has been reduced to SR2.25 per hour,” the Saudi Press Agency reported, quoting the governor.
Suwaiyel said the new discounts were decided after conducting detailed studies. “It allows the company to offer more than one bouquet of discounts for each service and offers clients the choice to select the best option,” he explained.
Suwaiyel said the new discounts, including several bouquets for ordinary and SAWA mobile phones and two bouquets for land phones, would benefit a large number of STC clients.
The Saudi telecom giant, according to Al-Madinah Arabic daily, also plans to cut mobile phone subscription fee by 50 percent from SR60 to SR30 to face the competition from the new service provider, Etisalat.
