RIYADH — The Kingdom's telecommunications watchdog has set up a rating index of different service providers that is based on the complaints lodged by users with the Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) during the first quarter of the current year. The index also takes into consideration the level of interest in the users by the service providers, Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported Monday. The index showed that the total unresolved complaints from subscribers filed with the CITC amounted to 8,481 and they had to be dealt with and resolved by the CITC. It also noted that the total complaints showed an upward trend as compared to 7,393 cases in 2019's last quarter. The index showed that the fixed and mobile communications services registered a decrease of nearly 54 percent in the total number of complaints lodged at the CITC compared to the same quarter last year. This was basically due to adopting a number of solutions to facilitate the procedures of lodging and handling of complaints by the commission. The most important of these solutions was to address the root causes of complaints, in addition to referring the unresolved complaints to the Communications System Violations Committee. The committee is authorized to impose penalties for any aberration on the part of service providers. The index showed an improvement by Etihad Etisalat Company (Mobily) and Saudi Telecom Company (STC) in resolving the issues raised by consumers. The performance of both Virgin and Lebara decreased during Q1 2020, the index showed. Meanwhile, Zain topped the list with the highest number of complaints in the mobile communications services, with 16 complaints per 100,000 subscriptions. As to the fixed communications services, the index registered an improvement in the performance of most of the companies during Q1 2020. STC, Mobily and Etihad Atheeb Telecom (GO) registered the best performance in this category, while Zain ranked first on the list of companies with the most complaints during Q1 2020.
