ICT Indicators in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (9M 2009)
1- Mobile Telecommunications Market:
The total number of mobile subscriptions has grown to around 41.2 million
(161.8% penetration) by 9M 2009. The majority of these subscriptions are
pre-paid (85%). Figure 1 depicts the mobile subscription evolution from
2001 to 9M 2009.
Mobile Service Market Growth –Subscriptions (2001-9M 2009)
Note: Based on numbers reported by mobile service provider
2- Fixed Telephony Market:
below shows the evolution of fixed telephone service in Saudi
Arabia from 2001 to 9M 2009. Fixed telephone lines reached 4.169 million
at 9M 2009, of which around 3 million or 74% were residential lines. This
represents a household teledensity of around 69%. The population
teledensity is around 16.3% >
Fixed Telephone Evolution in Saudi Arabia (2001-H1 2009)
Note: Population teledensity is calculated by dividing total fixed telephone lines by the population, while household teledensity is calculated by dividing only residential lines by the number of households..
3- Broadband Services Market:
The number of broadband subscriptions has grown from 64,000 in 2005 to
approach 2 million by the end of the Third Quarter (9M) 2009. This
represent a 49% increase compared to Year End 2008. The broadband
penetration rate stood at around 7.9% of population by the end September
2009. While most of the growth during 2009 came from wireless
broadband (fixed and mobile), DSL still represents over 62.5% of all
broadband connections.
Broadband household penetration is a more relevant indicator as a single
broadband connection in a house can provide high speed data access to all
members of a household. Household broadband penetration stood at
around 31% or 31 broadband connections for every 100 households
(assuming 70% of broadband connections are serving households).
Broadband Market Evolution (2001-9M 2009)
4- Internet Services Market:
The number of Internet users grew from around 1 million in 2001 to an
estimated 9.8 million by the end of the Third Quarter (9M) 2009, as shown
in Figure 4. This corresponds to an average growth rate of around 7% over
the 9M of 2009. Internet penetration increased to 38.5% of the population
by the end of September 2009.
Internet Market Evolution (2001-H12009)
Note: (1) For the years 2001-2006, numbers of users are CITC estimates based on reported Internet
connections (dial-up and broadband).
(2) For the years 2007 and 2008 , the number of internet users are based on the results of 2 major field
surveys of the Internet market commissioned by CITC. The numbers for H1 2009 are CITC estimates.
5- Telecom Services Sector Revenues:
Telecom services revenues have been steadily growing at a cumulative
average rate of around 15% annually, increasing from around SR 20 billion
(US$ 5.3 billion) in 2001 to around SR 59 billion (US$ 15.7 billion) in
2008. Mobile services revenues represent around 80% of all telecom sector
revenues in the Saudi market. In H1 2009 Telecom services revenues
recorded SR32 billion (US$ 8.6 billion).
In addition to revenue from the domestic market, investment by Saudi
licensed telecom companies in foreign telecom markets including
Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Turkey and South Africa, have led to rapid
growth of revenue for the sector from foreign operations, from zero in
2006 to SR 455 million in 2007 and to more than SR 10 billion in 2008,
Telecom Sector Revenues (2001-2008)
6- Telecom Services Prices and Inflation:
The liberalization of the telecom sector, and the resulting competition in
the market, has led to remarkable benefits for the economy at large and for
the consumers in particular – in terms of increased service availability,
better quality services, improved customer care, more consumer choices,
and lower prices.
While the cost of living index continued to rise in the last few years due to
increased prices of most of its components, the prices of telecom services
progressively decreased.
Figure 6 depicts the relative changes in the overall cost of living index
(CLI) and of its major expenditure groups, during the period 2002 to 2008.
The telecommunications services subgroup is also included in the Figure
for ease of comparison. While the general CLI index increased by around
19% cumulatively over the last six years, with most of its expenditure
groups rising, the transportation and telecom groups decreased by around
8.4%. Most notably, however, is that the telecom services subgroup went
down during the same period by 23.5%.
Change in the Cost of Living Index (inflation) in Saudi Arabia over the
period 2002-2008 (cumulative)
Source: CITC analysis is based on data published by the Central Department of Statistics & Information (www.cdsi.gov.sa)