Saudi looks to up net users

Saudi Arabia's telco regulator is striving to boost broadband internet penetration levels, according to media reports.

A local paper quoted Mohammad Bin Ebrahim Al Suwaiyel, governor of the Kingdom's Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) as saying broadband subscribers registered only an "embarrassing" 1%, and that the CITC hoped to bring it up to 12%, without specifying a time frame.

To boost penetration, the Saudi government is planning to launch a unified licence covering fixed-line, mobile and internet in 2008 or 2009, according to the report.

Saudi Arabia lags behind most of the GCC in internet user penetration, Abdul Kader Kamli, president and research director of Dubai-based Madar Research Group told IT Weekly. "It is behind the UAE, Bahrain and Kuwait, and only ahead of Oman," he said.

Kamli claimed internet penetration for both broadband and dial-up together was around 20% in Saudi Arabia.

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