Saudi commission suspends services at main offices of STC, Mobily and Zain for violating rules

The Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) has temporarily suspended the services of the flagship offices in Riyadh of the Saudi Telecommunication Co. (STC), Mobily and Zain.
Violations relating to implementation of the comission’s decision on protecting users have been cited as the reason for the temporary suspension. The authority, in coordination with the Ministry of Commerce and Investment, confirmed that no lenience will be shown toward regulation violators, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.
A senior official from Mobily confirmed the suspension to Arab News on Saturday, saying the commission temporarily suspended the services of a flagship office in Riyadh due to the violation of consumer protection rights. He said the commission has issued some guidelines, which the telecom providers failed to implement.
An STC high-ranking official also confirmed it saying he heard about the suspension and it was justified since the guidelines issued by the authority should be followed. “This is in fairness to the consumers and in accordance with the so-called fair-usage policy,” he said.
He, however, added that so far, there was no impact on STC services to customers as he and his friends could still avail themselves of STC services.
According to Zain customer service, this closure did not affect customers or operations.
“All our offices are open today,” the Zain customer service representative said.
Attempts to get further information were stalled with the customer service representative referring Arab News to the Zain website to send an e-mail.

— With input from Essam Al-Ghalib, Rashid Hassan and Rodolfo C. Estimo Jr.