JEDDAH, 23 July 2006 — Saudi Telecom Company (STC) highlighted the Al-Jawal network’s readiness to attract new customers by building on the ongoing expansion of the network’s facilities.
“We are planning to attract new customers by leveraging on the professionalism of the Saudi youth, the resources of the Al-Jawal network and our competitively-priced state of the art services,” said STC’s president, Saud ibn Majid Al-Dewish.
Al-Dewish indicated that Al-Jawal has developed the largest network of telecom facilities in the Middle East and North Africa and that the network now has over eight thousand fixed and mobile base stations across the Kingdom. STC also has an optical fiber network totaling a length of 40,000 km connecting the Kingdom’s cities and provinces.
“This is added to STC’s continued service span coverage of more than 35,000 km of highways among cities. Even agricultural strips among urban centers, villages, and off-road small settlement, as well as mountain and desert areas with low populations are covered by Al-Jawal network services,” said Al-Dewish.
Al-Jawal currently covers over 98 percent of residential areas within Saudi Arabia by serving more than 12 million customers.
With regards to competition in the Saudi telecom market Al-Dewish explained that STC has been preparing for competition since 1998 and that the company has placed customer services on the top of its list of priorities. “STC always welcomes clean-handed competition which ultimately pours in the best interest of the public and contributes to the advancement of the whole sector,” he said.
Telecom services in Saudi Arabia moved a step further recently when STC became the first provider of the high-speed third generation service.
Additionally, Al-Dewish explained that STC has continually and periodically reduced its prices. Al-Jawal’s tariff was recently reduced from SR 1.6 per minute to SR 0.30, an 82 percent cumulative reduction.
Al-Dewish also explained that STC was giving particular attention on providing the best telecom services possible to pilgrims during the Haj and Umrah seasons by installing special base-towers at pilgrim sites to allow traffic of over two million calls simultaneously.
The president of STC also highlighted STC’s support of social initiatives including a “Health Loyalty” in which STC committed SR100 million for the construction and equipment of 28 health centers at various cities and provinces of the Kingdom in collaboration with the Ministry of Health. STC presently employs more than 23,000 individuals and has an 88 percent Saudization rate.
