Saudi Arabia plans to block WhatsApp in coming weeks if the makers of the mobile chat app don't comply with local regulations.
The warning comes after the Communications and Information Technology Commission blocked popular voice and messaging app Viber last week.
Al-Darrab said Viber was blocked last week for non-compliance, and that WhatsApp and Skype may be next on the list.
Asked when WhatsApp services would be blocked, the CITC chief said it was highly likely to be before the holy month of Ramadan which is expected to start on July 9.
The regulator issued a directive in March saying tools such as Viber, WhatsApp and Skype broke local laws, without specifying how.
Mobile penetration was 188 percent by the end of 2012, CITC data shows. Saudi Arabia now has 15.8 million Internet subscribers and the average user watches three times as many online videos per day as counterparts in the United States, according to YouTube.
Conventional international calls and texts are a lucrative earner for telecom operators in Saudi Arabia, which hosts around nine million expatriates. These foreign workers are increasingly using Internet-based applications such as Viber to communicate with relatives in other countries, analysts say.
Source:Dailystar
