BURAIDAH, 13 May — The Saudi Telecom Company (STC) in the Qassim Province has cut Internet services to customers in the Asyah region, according to a source from the company in Qassim.
"The rural system, which operates the Internet in Hunaithel, a town in the Asyah region, has been changed," said the source, who chose to speak on condition of anonymity.
The decision to restore the service can only be taken in Riyadh, he said, adding that a better and modern system is being installed in the region.
For their part, a number of Asyah customers complained about the decision.
"We have been constant users of the Internet since the start of the service in the Kingdom in 1999," said Mohammad Al-Qusair, a mathematics teacher in Hunaithel intermediate school. "But, all of a sudden, the company has decided to deprive us of the right to use the service," he added.
"The STC in Qassim has been unfair to those living in the Asyah region," said Ibrahim Al-Qusair, another customer. "If you want to call within the same region, you have to use the local zero," he explained, adding that this is not the case with other regions in Qassim.
Asyah is a tourist spot, which a large number of people from Qassim and the surrounding areas visit throughout the year, he said.
"But STC in Qassim does not care about how profitable the region may be to them," he said.
"It is not only the Internet and the zero problem," said Zaid, another customer in Hunaithel. "It has also to do with the weak network coverage of mobile services in the region."
