JEDDAH, 25 August 2005 — Mobile and landline services are becoming competitive. While this is to the advantage of phone users, as their international calls are becoming cheaper, hundreds of employees manning call cabins Kingdomwide are facing the prospects of unemployment.

Call cabins have been closing down across Saudi Arabia, especially after Saudi Telecom (STC) sharply lowered international telephone call charges. “This is affecting the livelihood of more than 16,000 employees who work at 4,000 centers in the Kingdom,” a major call cabin operator said.

“Saudi Telecom continues to neglect this sector deliberately despite receiving 80 percent of the revenue from each center,” Fahd Al-Amry, head of a company that owns a number of centers in different cities, said. “The STC should reconsider our profit margin as our overheads include payment of rent and salaries but we receive only 20 percent of the income we generate.”

The issue is of utmost importance as mostly young people work in call cabins. “If the sector remains neglected then these young employees face unemployment,” he added.

Speaking on behalf of individual call center owners, Ibrahim Mahmoud said owners like him had the call centers as their only source of income. He said he had been involved in this business for nearly five years with a 30-member young Saudi staff. “Some of us have also made representations to the Ministry of Labor,” he said hinting that he might even consider taking legal steps if the STC did not reconsider the issue in its entirety. “After all, our income is at stake and so is the future of our young employees.”

“We stopped issuing permits for new call centers four years ago,” Abdullah Al Shahri, head of the media department at the STC said. “We’ve no intention of renegotiating each party’s profit margin. Saudi Telecom takes 80 percent of the call centers’ revenue, but in the recent years any income from the unused time has been passed on to them,” he told Asharq Al-Awsat, adding that lowering the tariffs of international phone calls did have its impact on the call centers.

The STC’s latest announcement says that phone users can get the cheapest international calling rates by subscribing to its fixed-line Alhatif friends and family (F&F) discount package. “The F&F service gives a 25 percent discount on two international numbers of the subscriber’s choice. This means double discount and very affordable rates to all Asian countries — India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Philippines, as well as to Jordan, Yemen, Iraq, North America, Europe and several other countries across the globe.

With the F&F package, calling rates to India are as low as SR1.65 per minute and those to Pakistan SR1.80 per minute. Similarly the F&F discounted rates for other countries like Philippines are SR2.10, Bangladesh SR1.88, and as low as SR1.50 to Egypt and the United States and SR1.35 to Canada.

The F&F package is open for subscription to all Saudi and expatriate phone users of Alhatif fixed line. To subscribe to this service, subscribers need to call Alhatif Customer Care at 907, press option 5 and ask for subscription to F&F. The customers should keep their two international numbers (country and area code) handy before calling 907.

In case the international double zero access does not open then the agent will open it for the subscriber and then enlist their two F&F international number giving eligibility for a 25 percent additional discount. The subscriber can also select eight national numbers (mobile and landline) to make a maximum of 10 numbers if they wish. “This service is offered at only SR10 per month but the total saving on the F&F calls far outweighs it,” the STC spokesman said.