DAMMAM — The Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) has punished service providers for violating CITC rules and license conditions as the Kingdom's telecom regulator found nearly 700 violations during the Hijrah year 1436, which ended in mid-October. Total fines imposed on telecom companies during the year reached SR552 million. "We have received about 45,000 complaints about service providers during 1436," said a CITC official to Al-Hayat Arabic daily, requesting anonymity. He said the committee that looks into telecom violations has punished operators for 690 violations during the past year. Violations included cutting telephone cables, providing illegal connections, selling prepaid mobile phone chips without registering ID number, providing illegal offers and issuance of unauthorized telephone service licenses. The violations were determined by a committee comprising experts. Referring to the complaints, the official said they were mainly related to telephone bills, quality of service, transfer of numbers and cancellation of service. The legal adviser at CITC said the organization receives complaints from both service providers and individuals through the department of users. "The CITC has an independent committee of experts to look into all violations throughout the Kingdom. It issues maximum and minimum fines depending on the violation," the adviser said. He said subscribers can lodge their complaints by logging into the CITC website, which is an electronic link between the commission and service providers. "If the service provider does not respond to the complaint or the subscriber is not happy with the solution offered by the former, the subscriber can reactivate the complaint to bring to the notice of CITC," the legal adviser told Al-Hayat. He said subscribers can also point out the reasons that make them unhappy with the telecom company's service and this will appear automatically against each service provider as an indicator. An automatic system will inform service providers about the complaints through SMS. The CITC set up the committee to look into violations of telecom companies in 2004 and has set out fines of up to SR6 million to be imposed on violators. The CITC imposed a fine of SR135,000 for giving 135 prepaid chips violating regulations. Some telecom companies are facing charges of delaying transfer of numbers. The regulator forced a telecom company to provide 3G service in a city after receiving a complaint from a citizen about the company's poor Internet service. Companies are required to provide the quality of service they have offered to customers.
