VoIP resellers raided and jailed in Saudi

A businessman claims resellers of prepaid international VoIP calling cards are being raided in Saudi Arabia, with some even thrown in jail.

Preferring not to be named, he is one of several providers offering calling cards that target the lower-income labourers working in the kingdom.

“We face raids from the incumbent and the legislative authorities. Raids to the call shops and the stores that sell the cards. The incumbents are controlling the legislative authorities. We see this as very negative and non-competitive,” he stated.

The source suggests that construction workers who earn about SAR749 (US$200) per month are not being served or supported by the higher international call rates offered by the incumbents, which are reported to charge somewhere in the region of SAR2.44 (US$0.65) per minute for outbound calls to India, compared with his price of SAR0.37 (US$0.10) per minute.

The reseller argues if VoIP is publicly available on the Internet it ought to be freely available in the kingdom as well. He said, “We’re giving people a good service – take this card, call your home country. Why are we protecting the high rates of the telcos when there should be open competition?”

The situation in Saudi Arabia is reminiscent of the UAE last year when Etisalat clamped down on those Internet cafes in Dubai found to be offering illegal VoIP telephone services.

According to sources at the time, officials from Etisalat and Dubai Economic Department visited several Internet cafés in the emirate throughout the month of April – including no less than four cafés on just one Dubai street – in order to fine and temporarily close down businesses found to be offering VoIP calls to end users and/or selling prepaid VoIP telephone cards.

Internet cafés found to be offering VoIP services were temporarily shut down and fined in many cases, with the owners required to sign an ‘undertaking’ letter with Etisalat, stating that they would not violate their contracts with Etisalat again. Third-party provision of VoIP services remains illegal in the UAE.