Nothing to pay on the Phone Bill this Month

This month, January 2010, it seems there will be no telephone bills issued in Saudi Arabia. The government had removed the previous IT co-ordinating company and apparently before they left a bug was planted in to the system.

People whose bills were normally about US$ 50 a month received bills of US$ 800 and those with bills of US$ 800 recieved bills for US$ 50. This applies to an entire country with 20 million mobile lines, (2007 figures); and 3 million land lines, (2002 figures).

To sort out the mess, no telephone bills will be issued for January 2010 and apparently the entire nation is sending each other endless video text messages for free.