Viva said the launch of its next-generation mobile network – which allows web download speeds several times faster than its predecessor 3G – will help boost its revenues.
Saudi has 1.8 mobile subscriptions per person, which means the new firms must likely woo customers from existing operators and that threat could explain their apparent reluctance to cooperate.
Ooredoo and Norway’s Telenor Group last year won telecom licences in the southeast Asian country, whose mobile penetration is about 10 per cent, among the lowest globally.
The TRA said that fraudsters, seeking to illegally obtain personal information, were claiming to be from an authorised national telephone service provider.
Zain’s Iraqi unit was sued by a local telecommunications firm over the $1.2 billion acquisition of rival operator Iraqna from Egypt’s Orascom Telecom in 2007.