Al-Watan Telecom companies in the Kingdom have surprised their international counterparts by making good profits after offering poor quality Internet services at higher rates. One foreign company sent its representatives to a Saudi telecom communication company office to have a special course on this matter. Customers can easily understand they are cheated when they check the speed of their Internet connection, which will be much less than what they are charged for. In the neighboring GCC countries people can enjoy fast Internet services at comparatively lower rates. Nowadays one can get enough time to prepare tea or coffee when trying to open his or her Internet connection in the Kingdom as it will take a long time to get connected. Poor Internet service in the Kingdom is not a secret. Even the minister of telecommunications and information technology admitted that about 80 percent of messages he receives on his Twitter account are related to poor Internet service. If anybody wants to understand the enormity of the problem let him or her open the account of the customer care of Saudi telecom communication companies on the Internet. You can see a large number of complaints from different parts of the Kingdom on poor Internet services. Local telecom companies continue their campaign to increase the number of customers without doing anything to improve the quality of service. They have not expanded the capacity to meet requirements of the increasing number of customers. The high pressure on the network has slowed down services. Although the profits of telecom companies often exceed those of the commercial banks, we do not see any improvement in services. Customers have the right to get quality service for the money they pay. Internet is no more a luxury as most services are now given through the information super highway, including government services, banking operations and school results. The government's plan to increase its e-services would definitely increase the number of Internet users in the country. This should encourage telecom companies to improve their services including Internet connections. It is unfortunate that the three telecom service providers in the Kingdom compete with one another to provide poor quality service.
Editor's note: The article had erroneously translated Saudi telecom communications companies as Saudi Telecom Company. We have re-posted the correct version. The error is regretted.
