JEDDAH, 5 August 2003 — The Saudi Telecom Company (STC) has signed a contract with a collection agency which will attempt to recover unpaid bills.

STC has signed agreements with specialized offices all over the Kingdom to collect unpaid bills Al-Eqtisadiah reported.

The amount of unpaid cell phone bills has SR750 million. In addition, over SR1 billion for landlines is owed to STC by the government and individuals.

STC has given rights to the agency to file lawsuits and pursue those whose bills are unpaid. The agency will get a percentage of the amount owed once it has been collected. The remainder of the money will go to the company.

Saleh Al-Jaser, an STC executive, said that the company had been obliged to resort to using a collection agency after exhausting every effort to make customers pay their bills. STC called customers, sent invoices and even put a limit on the amount that customers were not allowed to exceed — but all to no avail.

STC is now coordinating with government agencies to deduct from the salaries of employees who do not pay their bills. The company is also negotiating with the police to bring those in who do not pay and force them to do so.

It has even been suggested that STC might put the names of non-paying customers on a blacklist and prevent them from traveling abroad.