Communications and Information Technology Commission Holds Forum on Mobile Telecommunications Services and Their Future Directions in the Kingdom

The Communications and Information Technology Commission held, today, Wednesday 27 Jumada al-Awwal 1436H, corresponding to March 18, 2015, at the Commission's main headquarters in Riyadh, a forum on information technology in the Kingdom titled "Mobile Telecommunications Services and Their Future Directions in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia," aimed at exploring future directions for mobile telecommunications services and the opportunities and challenges in this field.

The forum aims to stimulate discussion and dialogue on the challenges and opportunities for increasing the effectiveness of the mobile telecommunications services ecosystem in the Kingdom, while reviewing the most important findings from the Commission's studies and exploring future prospects for developing these services, and hosts a number of interested parties and specialists in telecommunications, alongside academics and professionals working in telecommunications and IT.

His Excellency the Governor of the Commission, Eng. Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Darrab, opened the forum's proceedings with a speech in which he shed light on the developments achieved by the telecommunications and IT sector as a result of the generous support the sector enjoys from the state and its leadership — may God protect them — and reviewed the effective impact of telecommunications and IT services across various fields of development and the transition to a knowledge-based economy and information society.

Al-Darrab noted that the Kingdom has taken advanced steps in liberalizing telecommunications and IT services markets, enhancing and protecting competition, protecting users, expanding and diversifying services, and developing human capabilities, in addition to raising the efficiency of the infrastructure for these services, resulting in the establishment of tens of thousands of wireless base stations across all regions of the Kingdom, and the laying of more than 350,000 kilometers of fiber-optic networks between and within cities. The number of mobile telecommunications subscriptions rose from 9 million subscriptions in 2004 to approximately 53 million subscriptions by the end of 2014, with a penetration rate reaching 171%.

Total broadband subscriptions via mobile telecommunications networks, in their broad definition, also reached approximately 29 million subscriptions by the end of 2014, with a penetration rate of approximately 94.5%. The number of broadband subscriptions via fixed telecommunications networks grew to approximately 3 million subscriptions by the end of 2014, with a penetration rate estimated at approximately 43.2% at the household level, compared to approximately 1.7 million subscriptions in 2010.

As for internet penetration, it grew at high rates over the past years, rising from 13% in 2005 to approximately 63.7% by the end of 2014. The number of internet users in the Kingdom is currently estimated at approximately 19.6 million users.

This development in the sector was attributed to several factors, most notably: the unlimited support the sector enjoys from the state — may God protect it — as previously mentioned, the introduction and preservation of competition across all telecommunications and IT services, and the Commission's adoption of the principle of technology neutrality, which led licensed mobile telecommunications companies to introduce high-speed third- and fourth-generation technologies and fiber-optic technologies. Perhaps among the Commission's most important recent achievements is increasing competition in the mobile telecommunications services market by granting new licenses to mobile virtual network operators, given the positive impact this has on delivering advanced subscriber care services, providing additional options, and offering innovative service packages in the market, alongside increased competition at the retail sales level.

Regarding the growth of the telecommunications and IT industry, Dr. Suleiman bin Abdulaziz Mardad, Deputy Governor for IT Affairs, noted that Saudi establishments have begun adopting more advanced technologies, which are in turn expected to help support the growth in use of mobile telecommunications services. He noted that studies conducted by the Commission show that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has made significant progress in adopting and using mobile telecommunications services, with growth opportunities in the sector continuing.

During the forum, the Commission presented a report drawing a number of findings on topics related to mobile telecommunications services and their trends in the Kingdom, such as the scale of use and widespread penetration of these services, the interaction and change in consumption patterns brought about by smart devices, in addition to content and related services, and the privacy and security of mobile telecommunications services. The report also provides an overview of the IT market in the Kingdom, in addition to addressing a number of enablers of technology use and the volume of spending on it, and discusses important opportunities and explores future prospects for these services in the Kingdom.