Staying connected to homeOver the last ten years, the rapid changes in telecommunication technology has revolutionized the way people in the Kingdom communicate, making the country's nationals and expatriates a part of the larger global community. This has helped expatriates to maintain social ties with people in their home countries. Mohammad Nawaz, a Pakistani businessman, who has spent most of his life in Saudi Arabia, said: “I know I will be showing my age when I say that the old black rotary-dial telephones were the standard in everyone's home when I was growing up. People were excited when they could have their own phones.” “Those days,” he continued, “are gone forever. Communicating in the 21st century can be far more complex than picking up the phone and dialing a number. Now you can call, fax, page, email, even videophone anyone across the globe.” Telecom companies in a bid to lure expats announce a variety of offers and discounts on their respective national days. Telecommunications now includes not only plain old telephone services but also new cable communications, direct satellite broadcast technology, wireless systems electronic commerce and more that are evolving almost daily. As per CITC (Communication and Information Technology Commission) data, fixed telephone lines reached 3.95 million people at the end of 2006, of which 3 million (75 percent) were residential lines. Prior to 2005, international call rates were as high as SR4/minute for a call to the Philippines and Indonesia, SR4.50/minute to India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, SR3/minute for the US and Canada, and SR5/minute to Germany. Moreover, Internet service was not widespread and was very costly. “Five years ago, I would pay SR1000 to SR1500 in phone bills per month. Now it is almost less than half that amount,” said Zubair, an Indian national working in a consultant company in Riyadh. “I call my parents back home on a daily basis. The cost of international calls was much too high back then. Also, the Internet was unpopular because it was an expensive low quality service,” he said. Saudi Arabia officially approved the introduction of the Internet in 1997 and the service started on the first day of 1999. There were around 200,000 Internet users in 2000 (only 0.9 percent of the total population), with the number reaching 6,200,000 users (around 22 percent of the populace) in 2008. Umm Yousuf, a Lebanese mother of four, says: “Thanks to the slashed rates of both the Internet and long-distance calls, it has now become very easy for me to stay connected with my kith and kin back home.” Umm Usama, an Indian national teacher in Jeddah, thinks that in an “era of computer-mediated communication”, distance no longer matters. “Every coin has two faces and this goes for technology as well. Technology does help better social ties. However, it often leads to the reduction of offline socializing. On average, the more time that is spent online, the less time that is spent with family, friends and colleagues. It's almost like one knows everything about his overseas relatives but not about his brothers, sisters and neighbors,” said Usama. Cellular communication, once only for the elite, has now become a common commodity. The Kingdom has nearly 21 million mobile users. “Due to the various prepaid and postpaid schemes, mobile phones can be accessed by even teenagers. This can be harmful when the device is overused as is the case nowadays,” said Usama.
