Saudi Arabia: SR25m fine for unlicensed telecoms devices

Cairo: The Saudi Communications and Information Technology (CITC) has announced starting imposing fines of up to SR25 million for dealing in unlicensed telecoms devices.

The CITC has also warned suppliers of these devices against distributing and selling gadgets that do not conform to specifications approved by the authority including unlicensed devices and illegal network boosters to avoid fines.

The enforcement of the hefty fines comes after the end of a two-month grace period given to telecoms suppliers to rectify their status and sales. During that duration, CITC officials carried out inspection tours of communications stores in the kingdom to explain the harmful effects of illegal devices on quality of communication.

Illegal network boosters result in frequency interference that negatively affects mobile communication services.