Saudi mobile subscribers rise 3% in 2018: CITC

Saudi Arabia's number of mobile subscribers rose 2.7 percent year-on-year (YoY) to 41.3 million by the end of 2018, with a market penetration rate of 126.9 percent, data issued by the Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) showed.

Prepaid subscriptions accounted for 68.8 percent, or 28.4 million of total users.

Fixed-line subscribers dropped 14.3 percent YoY to 3.12 million, with a penetration rate of 31.8 percent.

Residential telephone lines reached 1.72 million, accounting for 55 percent of total lines.

Mobile broadband subscriptions hit 29.15 million by the end of 2018, compared to fixed-line broadband users of 1.9 million. Total subscribers in broadband services saw a YoY decrease of 3.6 percent.

Internet usage for the age group between 10 and 74 years declined to 93.3 percent in 2018 from 94.3 percent a year earlier.

Revenue from telecommunication services grew to SAR 73.3 billion last year from SAR 71 billion in 2017, the data added.