RIYADH, 15 October 2004 — Saudi Data, a business unit of Saudi Telecom Company (STC), announced a major reduction in the prices of its four main services - Saudi Data Digital Leased Lines, Saudi Data Framework Relay, Saudi Data ATM, Saudi Data IP-VPN, that are used by business customers in the Kingdom.
The price reductions that will be effective beginning next year range from 10 to 20 percent on speeds below 2 megabits per second. For higher speeds the tariffs are reduced up to 35 percent. Customers will also be able to upgrade their services in 1 megabit per second increments.
“STC has been actively working to launch new generation data services and to offer them at competitive prices that are comparable to regional and international benchmarks,” STC Chairman Khaled Melhem told newsmen at a press conference held here yesterday. He added that with these reductions of 10 to 35 percent Saudi Data services would become much more affordable for customers and would stimulate the market for data services in the Kingdom.
Melhem recalled that early this year, the company announced reduction in prices for Internet backbone services used by Internet Service Providers to provide Internet to residential and business users. “This paved the way for increased number of Internet users in the Kingdom,” he added.
Saudi Data Digital Lines are used for local, national and international data connectivity. “This is the most common data service for business customers in the Kingdom and the reduction in its price is expected to benefit thousands of businesses,” Melhem said. The service is also used for Internet access and the reduction of its price will increase the rapid growth of Internet in the Kingdom.
Saudi Data Framework Relay service is most commonly used by banks and other businesses to connect branch locations with their head offices. Reduction in its tariff will stimulate the rapid growth of data services in the financial industry, Melhem said.
Saudi Data ATM service is a high speed service for heavy data users such as hospital, data centers and educational institutions. “Price reductions of up to 35 percent for speeds up to 155 megabits per second will encourage migration of customers to higher speeds without incurring additional costs,” the chairman said.
Saudi Data IP-VPN is one of the newest data service launched early this year. “This next generation service is the fastest growing service because of its security, any -to-any connectivity and technical reliance on Multi Protocol Label Switching and Internet Protocol IP. This service utilizes STC’s very high speed fiber network that operates at 2.5 gigabits per second.
