when a governing body uses steroids....

If you are living in Saudi Arabia, you will have noticed that over that past few weeks there has been a lot of buzz about CITC (Comm. & IT Commision) and it's attempts to muscle its way into the media. Thus far the message that they have sent across as far as I am concerned are the following:

1. CITC has way too much time on it's hands
2. CITC has as much power over mobile operators as it does over smoking regulation (none)

The first announcement was made about two weeks ago when they came out in a superman fashion, hands on the waist, wearing a tight spandex suit and with a cape flapping behind them as the wind gusted past them and they announced "We, the CITC, have decided, for the benefit of fair competition, that free roaming services will be disallowed." *fart*.

Zain of course being the "personalityless" company that is is complied immediately in fear of, well apparently nothing (seriously these guys need to do something about their image). STC the crooks that they are decided to just give the service to the customers they have robbed the most (Tamayuz Customers). Mobily on the other hand has proven itself to be the mobile provider of the people, by the people for the people, and gave CITC a big finger and ignored the decision.

I saw a lot of peoples reactions that were a mixture of anger, and well, more anger. I tried however for the past few days look at things objectively and look for some facts and figures to try and justify this decision.

First I realized that all three companies provided this service to all their customers. Secondly I found out that according to reports so the fact that it is unfair competition was out of the question. I thought maybe the issue was with people visiting but found out that the carriers the contracts were signed provided free incoming roaming both ways.

I figured it must be an income issue and that the telecom companies are reducing their income which in turn reduces CITC's revenue and low and behold I was wrong again. In fact, in 2009 mobily reached new record high revenue from roaming services than before. It seems that while in the past most people were shutting off their phones and getting local numbers, today very few do that and more people are making calls while roaming. So I hit a wall and thought I would sleep on it for a few days.



As the days went by I came to the conclusion that these guys are simply and purely a bunch of _________ (you fill in the blank to your liking). It turns out (I believe) that some senior guy there took a training course in business development or read a case, and thought "oh, that is a good idea" without really needing to justify it to the public for which they are supposed to protect.

More recently they have decided that the Ministry of Interior is not doing its job and has decided to meddle in its affairs. Local media is having a complete field-day with this whole "we must stop Blackberry Messenger" stir that CITC has started off. Do not get me wrong, I respect and I am all for national security, but CITC clearly lacks any sort of media training, authority or a sense of what it's responsibility is. It needs to be shut down, reopened as something else and replaced by people that don't work this hard to make strange decisions.

Ultimately the lesson we should have learned here is that sometimes decisions are made that make no sense by people that have no sense. But it is what it is and just a part of life we need to deal with unfortunately. So stand up tall, swallow your pride, and take it like a man (or woman). And be proud that there are people that are stupider than you no matter how hard (or little) you may try.