"The Communications and Information Technology Commission" Tracks Sector Developments in the Fourteenth Issue of Its Electronic Newsletter

The Communications and Information Technology Commission today, Monday, released the fourteenth issue of its quarterly electronic newsletter concerned with tracking the most important developments in the telecommunications and IT sector in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia by the end of 2012.

The newsletter included the number of mobile telecommunications subscriptions, which reached approximately 53 million subscriptions by the end of 2012, with prepaid subscriptions representing the vast majority of them at more than 86%, making the mobile telecommunications penetration rate among the population approximately 181.6%.

A decline in the number of subscriptions is noted starting from the third quarter of 2012, due to the implementation of the decision linking prepaid SIM top-ups to ID numbers and the data update process, as companies deactivated large numbers of unidentified SIMs, which affected the total number of subscriptions and the penetration rate.

Regarding the internet, the number of internet users in the Kingdom rose by the end of 2012 to reach approximately 15.8 million users. The internet penetration rate increased at high rates over the past years, rising from 5% in 2001 to approximately 54.1% by the end of 2012.

The newsletter detailed the growth and penetration rates in broadband services, which reached 2.54 million via fixed telecommunications networks, while total broadband subscriptions via mobile telecommunications networks, in their broad definition, exceeded 12 million subscriptions.

The newsletter also included estimates of spending on telecommunications and IT services, which reached nearly SAR 94 billion in 2012.

To view the full contents of the newsletter, please visit the Media Center window — section

Electronic Newsletter

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