Ministry of Telecommunication raises prizes [Archives:2005/889/Local News]
SANA'A – Oct. 22 – A large number of citizens complained last week of a sharp rises of prizes on calls and internet. When they received the bills for last August and September, they were shocked to find that the cost of local calls had got higher and the cost of the internet had raised from one riyal to 1 1/2 riyals per minute. One riyal per minute is the officially announced cost.
Minister of Telecommunications and Information Technology, Engineer Abdulmalik al-Mu'amlimi, said to the media that he did not know about an increase in the cost of calls and internet and that his ministry did issue any directives concerning this matter.
Director of the General Corporation for Telecommunication, Kamal al-Jabri, confirmed to the media that the price of calls had risen to amend the system of bills in the governates because of a flaw in the previous system, which caused problems in the price of calls.
According to al-Jabri, the increased prices on local calls and internet is suggested to avoid any loss, as the government of Yemen suffer from big burdens which never exist in other countries, mainly the cost of preventing undesired sites.
Al-Nada weekly quoted Lawyer Mohamed Naji Allaw as saying: “From an ethical perspective, the General Corporation of telecommunications was supposed to announce to subscribers what it was about to carry out. It raised the cost of local calls and the internet by 50%, contrary to what the government promised to offer citizens cheap telecommunication services.
Allaw mentioned that other Arab countries exempted the internet services from previously imposed fees to improve prosperity and development.
Over the first half of 2005, the number of telephone lines in Yemen grew to 843 thousand and 90 lines in all the Yemeni governates, with an increase of 44 thousand and 954 lines to the number of the previous year.
The Yemen News Agency, Saba, published a report issued by the General Corporation for telecommunications, stating that the number of subscribers to the Internet service offered through the Yemen Net during the first half of the year reached 7599, while the number of subscribers in the pre-paid cards totaled to 9070, pushing to 84 thousand and 352 the overall number of internet subscribers.
By counting the total number of telephone and internet subscribers, one can find there is a 50% rise in the cost of internet and calls, and this will add thousands of riyals to the revenues of the corporation.
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