Telecoms & IT

Competition in Saudi Arabia’s telecoms sector continues to grow, with companies continually seeking to invest in the infrastructure that will connect customers to a broader range of communications services. As the number of mobile internet users continues to rise, the Kingdom’s operators are seeing demand for traditional voice and text services become gradually displaced by data services and mobile broadband. Meanwhile, and in line with the country’s economic diversification targets, IT firms are increasingly viewed by the government as essential to sustainable development, with the Kingdom’s latest five-year plan committed to enhancing the country’s IT infrastructure. Spending on cloud services is rising rapidly and is expected to reach $31.3m in 2015. This chapter contains interviews with Khaled Biyari, Group CEO, Saudi Telecom Company (STC).