JEDDAH, 9 November 2004 — Four ministries have submitted requests to the Royal Court for cellular phones with cameras to be permitted in the Kingdom. They are basing their requests on the fact that mobiles with cameras are a technological achievement equal to television and the Internet.

The ministries of interior, commerce and industry, communications and information technology, and finance separately requested that mobiles with cameras be permitted, according to Al-Eqtisadiah business daily, a sister publication of Arab News.

After a slew of highly publicized incidents in the Kingdom involving the misuse of mobile phones with cameras, a committee was formed by various ministries to look into the problem. All recommended allowing mobiles with cameras even if they have been abused.

“Do we expect international companies to manufacture mobiles especially for Saudi Arabia?” asked a source at a major mobile phone company.

“Technology only moves forward, so how can we expect customers to lean backward and use mobiles that are old and not up-to-date? This is only going to lead to a black market. People are already buying mobiles with cameras from outside the Kingdom. Such a ban is unrealistic from the beginning.”

Eighty percent of companies manufacturing cellular phones are moving toward installing cameras in their phones, in addition to other features such as Bluetooth wireless technology.

If mobile phones were manufactured especially for Saudi Arabia without cameras, prices would soar to cover additional manufacturing costs and this would put most phones out of the reach of the average Saudi consumer.

“Why not implement punishments for those who use mobile cameras in a bad way instead of banning it for everyone?” said a sociologist. “This method of just banning something instead of modifying the system of dealing with new things must be altered. It’s just like people’s attitude when the Internet came into the Kingdom. The bad conduct and those behaving indecently are those who ought to be banned or denied access and not the actual technology itself.”

An official at the Ministry of Interior, who preferred to remain anonymous, said, “We admit that there are definitely benefits from these advanced mobiles that have cameras as well as other services, but there’s a lot of pressure from religious sectors against this gadget. And yes, I agree that it’s unfair that everyone has to pay the price because of the people who are ignorant in the way they use modern technology. It isn’t easy pleasing all sectors.”

Saudi Arabia imports around six million mobile phones a year, with 70 percent of consumers regularly changing their mobiles, something that has greatly boosted demand.

Arab News contacted several mobile phone shops in different parts of Jeddah. The majority of the shops offering only mobile phones without cameras revealed a drop in sales compared to the shops taking the risk of selling mobiles with cameras under the counter.

The market for smuggled mobiles with cameras has increased because of the ban. Sources predict the value of smuggled mobile phones to surpass SR1 billion if the ban continues.

Haithem Abdulrahman, showroom general manager of Mashael Al-Khaleej Company, the Nokia representative in the Kingdom, said that banning mobile phones with cameras has not limited or stopped their availability in the Kingdom. He also said that indecent usage of the gadget should be punished instead of banning mobiles with cameras.

Furthermore, he stated that the banning decision encouraged and opened parallel mobile markets in other countries.

Hadi Nasser, an employee at an electronics shop in Jamjoom center, told Arab News: “It’s ridiculous and inconsistent to ban mobiles with cameras when there are small digital cameras nowadays.”

Dr. Fahd Al-Oboud, a Shoura Council member, said “conventional solutions to stop or limit the spread of technology like banning and monitoring are no longer worthwhile methods of dealing with technology.”

He saw that the right solution would be to deal with abusing the usage of technology by placing rules and laws for such matters. “Technology is a double-edged sword,” Okaz quoted Al-Oboud as saying.

He also demanded that technology should be dealt with in accordance to the day and age.

Maher Al-Otaibi, the customer services manager at Safari company, the agency representing Motorola in the Kingdom and Siemens maintenance, has stated that like other companies, the ban has led to a 50 percent drop in sales.

A businessman in the mobile phones market, Abu Fahd told Arab News, “You can’t blame customers for wanting more modernized and updated mobiles. Companies all over the world can’t go back to manufacturing mobiles without cameras. Technology is all about moving forward, not walking backwards.”

Al-Otaibi stated that there is a lot of awkwardness in not being able to satisfy the demands of customers asking for advanced mobile gadgets. Furthermore though they have maintenance services, they do not have spare parts for mobile phones that are bought from outside the Kingdom.

Several owners of mobile phone companies stated that maintaining the ban means a core-shift in the network usage because starting from this year there will be the new service of transferring images via mobiles.

“There is a saying in Arabic that means ‘Close the door which brings the wind in and rest’,” says a salesman at a mobile phone shop on Palestine Street. “In this case it doesn’t work at all. On the contrary, shutting out the wind is suffocating us and our businesses. Even proverbs change with time ... We must go with the flow of the times.”