Viveks Information Word Files Windows2003 - Format Saudi - Arabia

Saudi Arabia – Telecommunication
Overview
Demographic Profile
Population: 23.1 million
GNI per capita: US$ 12,510 as per
Profile of the population: 1.65 Million Indians
Major Infrastructure Project Underway: King Abdullah Economic City
Telecom History
Regulatory
http://www.citc.gov.sa/citcportal/Homepage/tabid/106/cmspid/%7B611C6EDD-85C5-
4800-A0DA-A997A624D0D0%7D/Default.aspx
Wireless
Etisalat (Mobily) bought the license in August 2004. There is also a consideration on
raising the 49% limit on foreign ownership of Telcos. A consortium headed by
Kuwaiti telco MTC won the auction with an offer of SAR22.91 billion (USD6.11
billion). MTC's local partners include Saudi Plastics Factory, Almarai Company,
Rakisa Holdings and Al Jeraisy Development Company. The Kuwaiti telco has a 50%
interest in the winning consortium, but has committed to lowering this to 25% via a
mandatory initial public offering (IPO).
Wireline
Verizon, PCCW & Batelco are three bidders which were offered licenses in April and
are expected to launch their services by 2008
Broadband
STC has a monopoly except in VSAT sector. VoIP is outlawed in Saudi Arabia
Details of Traffic & Subscribers
1
World Bank Figures
Variable Saudi Arabia Column1 India Column2
(Group: Middle
East and North (Group: South
Africa) Asia)
actual normalized actual normalized
Total Telephones per 1,000 People, 2004 537.4 6.47 84.5 6
Main Telephone Lines per 1000 People,
2004 154.3 5.29 40.7 6
Mobile Phones per 1,000 People, 2004 383.1 6.47 43.8 6
Computers per 1,000 People, 2004 353.9 8.82 12.1 6
Households with Television (%), 2004 98.7 9.41 37 6
Daily Newspapers per 1,000 People,
2000 n/a n/a 60 6.67
International Internet Bandwidth (bits
per person), 2004 31.3 3.08 11.4 5
Internet Users per 1000 People, 2004 66.2 2.94 32.4 8
Price Basket for Internet (US$ per
month), 2003 34.7 2.35 8.7 8
Availability of e-Government Services
(1-7), 2006 n/a n/a 3.55 7.5
Extent of Business Internet Use (1-7),
2006 n/a n/a 4.6 8
ICT Expenditure as % of GDP, 2005" 2.26 2 5.91 5
Subscriber Projections (if Possible)

Refer to the excel sheet Excel
Files\MiddleEast_CompanyWise_Subscriber_Base.xlsx
ILD (Outgoing Minutes)

Refer to the excel sheet Excel Files\MiddleEast_Outgoing_Traffic.xls
Major Players
STC (Saudi Telecom Company)
Ownership
STC is owned by the
1. State (70%)
2
2. Domestic investors (20%)
3. The Public Pension Fund (5%)
4. General Organization for Social Insurance (5%).
Services Offered
1. Wireline services: Offered under the Al Hatif Brand and it is the monopolistic
provider of wireline services.
2. Wireless services : Offered under the Al Jawal and SAWA brands
3. Broadband services: Saudinet, Saudi Data and Al Hatif are STC's internet
arms. The PTO claims that the division ranks third in terms of subscribers
amongst Saudi Arabia's domestic ISPs with a market share of 12%.
Tariffs
1. For IDD dialing rates to India refer to Excel
Files\MiddleEast_CompanyWise_Tariff.xlsx
2. Broadband Rates : DSL rates vary from 150 to 380 SAR (40 to 101.2 USD)
Other interests
In April 2004 Saudi Telecom, alongside 15 other national telecoms operators, signed
an agreement to develop a submarine cable system stretching 20,000km from
Singapore to France. With a capacity of 1 terabit per second, the SMW4 cable was
commissioned in the third quarter of 2005. A USD500 million contract to build and
install the cable was awarded to Alcatel and Fujitsu. In January 2006 STC teamed up
3
with UAE-based Etisalat and the Iraqi Telecommunications & Post Company (ITPC) to
deploy a 1,500km submarine cable connecting their respective three countries. The
three have signed a Construction and Maintenance Agreement (C&MA) for the
development of the system, which has been dubbed FOG2. It will initially link
Fujeirah in the UAE, Saudi Arabia's east coast and Um-Qasr in Iraq, and is expected
to be completed by the end of 2006.
Public Telecom Company (Bravo)
Ownership
PTC is owned by Wataniya (Kuwait Telco) 47%
Services Offered
Wireless : Public Telephone Company (PTC), which operates under the name Bravo,
was launched in July 2005, providing services for business users. It uses iDEN
technology and has networks covering the cities of Mecca, Medina, Jeddah, Riyadh,
Dammam and Dhahran, plus the Mecca-Jeddah highway. It claimed less than 30,000
subscribers by mid-2006.
Tariffs
1. For IDD dialing rates to India refer to Excel
Files\MiddleEast_CompanyWise_Tariff.xlsx
Other interests
None
4
Etihad Etisalat (Mobily)
Ownership
Mobily
1.
Other investors
Services Offered
Wireless which is offered in two from W-CDMA as well as 3G in GSM
Tariffs
For IDD dialing rates to India refer to Excel Files\MiddleEast_CompanyWise_Tariff.xlsx
Other interests
Partly owned by the Etisalat company that was the monopoly operator in UAE
News
1. Saudi Arabia will award three fixed line network operating licenses to consortia
led by Bahrain’s Batelco, Hong Kong’s PCCW and US-based Verizon
Communications next month.
2. The consortium led by MTC of Kuwait won the licence in March with a bid of
USD6.11 billion. The consortium, which has been set up under the name SMTC,
has pledged to sell 700 million shares, or 50% of its capital, within 30 days,
Menafn reports. A 10% tranche will be allocated to the Pension Fund and another
10% will go to the General Organization for Social Insurance (GOSI); the
remaining 30% stake will be sold via an initial public offering. SMTC plans to
5
invest between USD6 billion and USD8 billion over the next five years. Its first
services are expected to be launched in early 2008.
3. Saudi Arabia’s second largest cellular operator Mobily has begun rolling out a
push-to-talk (PTT) walkie talkie-style service. The Arab News report that Mobily is
looking to introduce the service over its GPRS and W-CDMA networks but a
launch date has yet to be announced.
4. Saudi Telecom Company (STC) has selected Redline Communications to roll out a
nationwide WiMAX network. The deployments will begin in Riyadh, Jeddah and
Dammam. ‘STC is bringing broadband communications in Saudi Arabia to a new
level.
5. Korean equipment supplier Samsung has been awarded a two-year contract to

supply a mobile WiMAX network to Bayanat Al-Oula in Saudi Arabia.
Deployments will begin later this year and will result in the largest 802.16e
mobile WiMAX network in the Middle East.
6. One operator which is planning to construct its own infrastructure is Bayanat Al-
Oula, the data service provider which was first licensed in August 2004. Bayanat
awarded a contract to Samsung in January 2007 for the deployment of a wireless
broadband network based on 802.16e mobile WiMAX network.

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Saudi Arabia – Telecommunication

GNI per capita: US$ 12,510 as per

Profile of the population: 1.65 Million Indians

Major Infrastructure Project Underway: King Abdullah Economic City

Details of Traffic & Subscribers

Subscriber Projections (if Possible)

ILD (Outgoing Minutes)

3. The Public Pension Fund (5%)

4. General Organization for Social Insurance (5%).

2. Wireless services : Offered under the Al Jawal and SAWA brands

Public Telecom Company (Bravo)

5. Korean equipment supplier Samsung has been awarded a two-year contract to

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