By: iPadfanzz staff on June 18, 2013
The Saudi Arabian government has threatened to block messaging app WhatsApp if the U.S.-based firm fails to comply with requirements set by the kingdom's telecom regulator.
Negotiations between WhatsApp and Saudi Arabia's Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) have broken down, according to the body's governor Abdullah Al-Darrab.
The state’s telecoms regulator is cracking down on social apps, as earlier the Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) banned Viber, a text messaging tool, which the government said was hard to monitor and deprives telecom companies of revenue from international calls and texts.
The CITC is also focusing on Skype and Tango for failing to "comply with existing regulations" in the country.
CITC said the WhatsApp services are likely to blocked before the holy month of Ramadan, expected to begin July 9, 2013.
Conventional international calls and texts are a lucrative earner for telecom operators in Saudi Arabia, which hosts around nine million expatriates. Analysts say these foreign workers have been increasingly using using Internet-based applications such as Viber to communicate with relatives in other countries.
Globally, WhatsApp has an estimated 250m users worldwide, Viber has 200m, Tango 120m and Skype more than 280m when it last announced figures in October 2012.
The Saudi Arabian government has threatened to block messaging app WhatsApp if the U.S.-based firm fails to comply with requirements set by the kingdom's telecom regulator.
Negotiations between WhatsApp and Saudi Arabia's Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) have broken down, according to the body's governor Abdullah Al-Darrab.
The state’s telecoms regulator is cracking down on social apps, as earlier the Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) banned Viber, a text messaging tool, which the government said was hard to monitor and deprives telecom companies of revenue from international calls and texts.
The CITC is also focusing on Skype and Tango for failing to "comply with existing regulations" in the country.
CITC said the WhatsApp services are likely to blocked before the holy month of Ramadan, expected to begin July 9, 2013.
Conventional international calls and texts are a lucrative earner for telecom operators in Saudi Arabia, which hosts around nine million expatriates. Analysts say these foreign workers have been increasingly using using Internet-based applications such as Viber to communicate with relatives in other countries.
Globally, WhatsApp has an estimated 250m users worldwide, Viber has 200m, Tango 120m and Skype more than 280m when it last announced figures in October 2012.
