JEDDAH, 9 March — Saudi Telecom Company will cut its mobile phone connection fee from SR500 to SR300 shortly, Al-Riyadh Arabic newspaper reported yesterday quoting informed STC sources.
The Arabic daily said the company will also introduce pre-paid mobile phone chips, for which there will not be any connection fee. The chips, to be marketed by four companies, will be available at supermarkets and groceries for prices ranging from SR200 to SR300.
The paper also pointed out that the STC will provide additional family mobile services, allowing subscribers to call more numbers and to change their numbers without approaching the company. At present, family mobile users are allowed to call only eight phone numbers.
Last Tuesday, the company cut mobile phone call charges by 16 percent — from 95 to 80 halalas per minute.
The new cuts have also covered the Silver Bouquet and Golden Bouquet package offers.
At present there are more than 2.7 million mobile phone subscribers in the Kingdom. The number increases by 130,000 monthly.
Finnish company Nokia and Sweden’s Ericsson have won contracts worth SR2.85 billion to implement the Kingdom’s fifth mobile expansion project, which will add three million mobile lines to the present network that covers more than 100 cities, towns and major highways.
