Saudi Arabia’s Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) has slapped a fine of SR552 million ($147 million) on several service providers for violating CITC rules and licence conditions during the 12 months ending mid-October.

The telecom regulator found nearly 700 violations during the period, added the Saudi Gazette report.

“We have received about 45,000 complaints about service providers during 1436 [Hijrah year],” a CITC official was quoted as telling Al-Hayat Arabic daily.

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, he said.

The complaints were mainly related to telephone bills, quality of service, transfer of numbers and cancellation of service, he added.

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.

“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 imposed a fine of SR135,000 for giving 135 prepaid chips violating regulations, the report said, adding that some telecom companies were 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, the report noted.