Telecommunication in Saudi Arabia

Development of telephone and internet connections

With an average download speed of 83.82 Mbit/second for fixed-network broadband internet, Saudi Arabia ranked 39th in an international comparison. The upload rate of only 28.32 Mbit/second was significantly lower (56th place).
In mobile internet, i.e. on tablets and smartphones, Saudi Arabia comes 8th with a download speed of 96.23 Mbit/second. The upload speed of around 17 Mbit was only enough for 12th place.

The Speedtest Global Index published regularly by Ookla is based on several million individual measurements in July 2022 from 182 countries.

The following diagrams show the development of the various telephone and Internet connections as a percentage of the country's population. Values above 100% mean that, on average, every inhabitant has more than one connection.

Access to the Internet in Saudi Arabia from 1990 - 2020

Broadband internet in Saudi Arabia 2001 - 2020

Saudi Arabia is lagging behind in the expansion of broadband Internet connections. Around 98% of all residents have access to the Internet. Around 23% have their own fast Internet connection, which is at least faster than the former ISDN (more than 256 kbit/s). All fixed connections via DSL, cable or satellite were counted here, but not those connected to the Internet via mobile communications.