Saudi Telecom Company
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| Saudi Telecom Company شركة الاتصالات السعودية |
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| Type | Public |
| Founded | 1998 |
| Headquarters | Saudi Arabia |
| Key people | Dr. Muhammed Al-Jasser (Chairman) Saud Al-Daweesh(President) |
| Industry | Telecommunications |
| Products | Telephone,  SAR 32.54 billion (2005) |
| Slogan | Your World. Delivered |
| Website | http://www.stc.com.sa/ |
Saudi Telecom Company, STC (Arabic: شركة الإتصالات السعودية) is a Saudi Arabia-based telecommunications company that offers landline, mobile and Internet services.
Structure
The Company operates through its three business units:
Al Hatif
Includes landline services, card phones, public telephones, prepaid card services and business services.
Al Jawal
Offers a range of mobile services, including Family Al Jawal, Sawa, messaging services, business services, data services and roaming services.
Network Technology
| Network | Status | Date |
|---|---|---|
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1996 | |
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2006[1] |
Saudi Data
Internet service provider, and a provider of data solutions. It serves the whole country as it is a monopoly covering both mobile and fixed networks. As of February 2007, STC has changed the name of their ADSL service to Afaq DSL.
History
The STC has emerged as the result of fake privatization that began in late 20th century. All telecom services were administered by the former Saudi Telex, Mail and Telephone Ministry. The company's IPO in 2002 was a major success in the Saudi stock market that marked the beginning of other offers later by many companies. In less than 3 years the stock rose by more than 2000%. This rise in stock price is a major profit for the government which owns most of the company stock.
Criticism
The STC has been a target for public criticism since it was part of the Ministry of Telex, Mail and Telephone. Because it was a perfect monopoly (and in part still is), services were overpriced even compared to other countries in the region. Some Saudis began using the GSM networks of countries nearby, most notably that of the Bahraini telecom company, Batelco, due to its proximity to the commercial region of the Eastern Province.
Since Etihad Etisalat/Mobily started business in Saudi Arabia, the STC has become no longer a monopoly in the mobile communication. However, it remains the only provider of land lines and all sorts of non-wireless Internet.
STC is highly criticized for providing slow and expensive internet services with poor reliability as indicated below.
- Slow Speed: 4096kpbs is currently the maximum ِADSL speed that STC provides for home users. This is keeping the kingdom of Saudi Arabia far behind when compared to nearby countries."STC press statment after launching a 512 Kpbs speed DSL service" . STC are recently rolling out a 4 Mbit/s service.
- Installation Delays: STC installs DSL connections in less than 10 days for some customers, but for many of its customers the wait can last for many months or even more than one year in few cases. Most small cities and many districts of the three large cities have been waiting for the service since it launched in 31/12/2000 with no avail. Definite dates would not be given by the company.
- Poor Reliability: STC has demonstrated a bad reliability of its DSL connections as these lines frequently get disconnected for maintenance or troubles.
- High Cost: Customers are forced to pay outrageous fees to STC in addition to the payment provided to internet service
providers. STC receives payments from home users, companies, government institutions, internet service provides, and
KACST (the main service provider in Saudi Arabia).
- Dialup home users pay SR3 ($0.8) per hour of usage. That is, SR72 ($19.2) for 24 hours of usage."STC dialup price page"
- DSL home users pay SR230 ($61.3)"STC DSL prices site"per month for 512kbit/s in addition to the normal payment to ISPs.
Most customers are waiting for better services or looking into alternatives to STC. Having no choice, some customers started using satellite connections, which are illegal in the kingdom, to get higher, cheaper, and reliable internet connections. People are begging STC to provide better services with little luck as demonstrated by this web site Say No 2 STC where thousands of people are signing a petition addressing the king in hopes for better services from STC. The web site has stopped activity though (as of summer 2006).
As an example of such outrageous "services", STC began selling SIM cards in the late 90s (for cell-phones) for $2600 with zero minute credits. This is only for the SIM card and nothing else. In addition, they demanded around $1.80 per minute for local calls. For International calls, you will be forced to pay for your received calls as if you were the originator of the call. And as expected, you will be charged with the highest rates. They also demanded around $2600 for setting up new landlines before. The person calling you will be charged as well.
Management
- Dr. Muhammed Al-Jasser (Chairman of the Board)
- Eng. Saud Majed Al Daweesh (President)
- Eng. Saad Dhafer Al-Qahtani
VP, Marketing and Sales
- Mr. Khaled Abdul Rahman Al Jasser
VP, Al Jawal
- Dr. Zeyad Thamer Al-Otaibi
VP, Network Sector
- Dr. Hamoud Mohammed Al-Kussayer
VP, Corporate Core
- Mr. Omer Mohammed Al-Turki
VP, Shared Services
- Mr. Ameen Fahad Al-Shiddi
VP, Finance
- Eng. Omar A. Alhudaithy
VP, Information Technology
- Eng. Saad Ahmed Al-Demiaty
VP, International Telecommunications
- Mr. Emad M. Alhudaithy
VP, Human Resources and Training
- Eng. Samir Asaad Matboly
VP, Saudi Data Units
Company Facts
| 2005 Revenue (SAR) | 32.54B |
|---|---|
| Net Profit Margin | 38.25% |
| Operating Margin | 41.06% |
| Return on Average Assets | 28.66% |
| Return on Average Equity | 39.04% |
In April 2007, Saudi Telecom posted its smallest quarterly profit in more than two years as competition eroded the former monopoly operator’s margins.
See also
External links
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