New research commissioned by Virgin Mobile has found that four-in-five mobile phone users in Saudi Arabia (77 percent) say that they pay every month for minutes, texts or Internet data which they do not use.

These losses add up to well over five hours just of calls on average each year, consumers report, paid for but never made.

Multiplied across Saudi Arabia’s 50 million mobile phone subscriptions, this adds up to an almost unimaginable 305 centuries of national talk time consumers think they are losing every year.

Virgin Mobile is launching a new app that makes it easier than ever for members to manage their accounts. The app is available for download from its website.

Virgin Mobile has designed its prepaid and postpaid accounts to be simple, straight forward and fair. Postpaid members are not charged for minutes, texts and data they do not use in their packages.

The more prepaid members use, the lower the unit rate they pay. One-in-10 subscribers say they lose 100 minutes of calls or more each month, meaning that every year they pay for at least 20 hours of telephone conversations they never have.

But a quarter of all consumers (25 percent) do not keep track of their subscriptions and are unable to estimate any losses.

Two thirds of consumers in Saudi Arabia (65 percent) think it is wrong for mobile phone companies to charge for unused minutes, text and data.

Karim Benkirane, CEO of Virgin Mobile Saudi Arabia, said: “It is hard to imagine consumers accepting this from any other industry. Getting what you pay for is a fundamental issue of fairness. Mobile phone plans should be simple, straightforward and fair. This is one way we are making mobile better.”

The new app makes it easier for keeping track of talk time, texts and data.