JEDDAH, 15 November 2005 — Internet users complaining about the poor service and high prices of Saudi Telecom Co., the Kingdom’s only Internet service provider, have created a website, www.sayno2stc.com, to register their concerns.
The website is open for all users to share their opinions about STC Internet services in hopes that STC will improve its services. Visitors to the site also can sign a petition about service problems that organizers hope to send to Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah.
The petition contends that Internet service has become a key for human development and that pricing is creating an unnecessary barrier to those ends.
“The high prices of the dial-up connection and the DSL connection lessen the use of the Internet and consequently limits the sources of information that can be reached,” petitioner Ahmed Salim said.
He noted that STC’s virtual monopoly on Internet service should prompt it to improve rates and capabilities. The least expensive and most popular choice for Internet service is via modem through dial-up connection, which provides relatively slow-speed data transfer. DSL connections offer higher speeds — at higher prices.
In order to activate DSL service, users pay a SR300 startup fee and then a monthly fee of SR120.
The petition also notes STC’s connection speeds, level of service and technical support are substandard compared to ISPs in competitive markets.
“Internet services can be better than that,” said 24-year-old Suhaila Adnan. “There are many experts who specialize in the Internet field and can work to improve speed and technical support. Why don’t people in charge use the experts’ skill to come up with better planning for the services?”
Al-Watan daily reported that the website’s founder is trying to follow the king’s lead.
“This website is extended from King Abdullah’s initiative to activate national dialogue by encouraging citizens to talk freely about everything that bothers them in order to find solutions for improvement,” founder Mohamed Al-Ghamdi wrote on the website.
The site includes a poll to allow people to voice their views on STC Internet service and substantiate them with comments. There also is a questionnaire asking for specifics about Internet concerns. So far, more than 800 people have responded to the survey, and more than 9,650 have signed the petition.
