Mobile phones:
Mobile phone services have developed remarkably during the past few years in term of penetration, the diversity of service and its price. Competition in mobile communications market has resulted in many positives, the most important of which is the rapid growth of penetration and the number of subscribers. In this respect, the penetration rate stood at 116% (28.4 million customers) by the end of 2007 compared to only 12% or 2.5 million subscribers in 2001. This represents an annual growth rate of around 46%. More than 83% of subscribers are holders of pre-paid cards as shown in the following diagram:
Notes:
(1)Figures as per operators reports.
(2)The number of subscribers increased significantly in the fourth quarter of 2007 due to addition of more than one million temporary subscribing pilgrims and visitors.
Land phones:
By the end of 2007, the number of land phones in the Kingdom reached around 4 million. Residential lines represent more than 2.9 million (73%) with a penetration rate of 66.5 lines per 100 households (66.5%). This is the appropriate criterion for measuring the penetration rate of land phones, as one land phone in a house serves all family members ( in case of mobile phones every family member may has his own phone). As for the penetration of land phone to population, it reached 16.3 lines per 100 persons (16.5%) by the end of 2007.
The following diagram shows the development of the penetration of land phones. It can be noticed that there is a low turnout for land phone service despite the availability of this service and the increasing number of lines installed at the exchanges. This is attributed to the fast penetration of mobile phone service, easy subscription and the gradual decrease of its costs. The shift from land phone service to mobile ones is a global phenomenon and can been seen in developed countries as well as some other countries with high penetration of mobile communications services.
Broadband service:
Broadband communications service has grown from 14,000 in 2001 to more than 623,000 by the end of 2007 with an annual growth rate of 90% during the past six years. Despite this growth, penetration rate still low compared to developed countries and other countries of conditions similar to the Kingdom. Penetration rate did not exceed 2.5% of population and 10.3% of households. There are significant growth opportunities for the spread of broadband communications service in the Kingdom with the opening of competition on land phone sector and new companies launching their services on a commercially-based concept. This represents one of the most important challenges facing C&IT sector in the coming few years.
Internet Service:
The number of Internet users has increased from one million in 2001 to around 5.4 million by the end of 2007 with a penetration rate of 22% among population and an average annual growth rate of 32%. This growth is attributed to the increasing awareness on the benefit of the internet, the growth of broadband services and the decrease of the prices of computers sets and communications and Internet services.
