Mobile users in Saudi Arabia number 53 million

The number of registered mobile subscribers in Saudi Arabia reached 53.3 million at the end of the first quarter of 2011, a rise of over seven million in three months, according to the Saudi Communications Commission (SCC).

46.5 million of those subscriptions – 86 per cent — were prepaid. The SCC report also reported that the number of Internet broadband users rose by 68 per cent to 4.88 million compared to the 2.9 million users registered a year earlier.

At the end of Q111 fixed-line users numbered 4.25 million, with residential home connections numbering 3.2 million, constituting 75 percent of all active lines.

The SCC estimates the number of Internet users registered in Saudi Arabia at the end of the first quarter of 2011 at 11.8 million, compared to 10 million registered a year earlier.