Saudi Telecom (STC) provides fixed-line, mobile, Internet, data and other telecommunications services directly and through its subsidiaries.

The Tadawul-listed company was the region’s largest telecom company with SAR34.46 billion (USD9.19 billion) in revenues in 2007.

The company’s mobile subscriber base represented 81% of STC’s subscriber base and 73% of its total revenues in 2007. The mobile subscribers grew by 27% to 17.3 million, at the end of 2007, which represents a 61% market share in Saudi Arabia. In 2004, Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (Etisalat)Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (Etisalat) broke Saudi Telecom's mobile monopoly when it won the license to operate Saudi Arabia's second mobile operator. Three years later, Zain Group won the license for the third mobile operator in Saudi Arabia as the Mobile Telecommunications Company of Saudi Arabia.

STC’s fixed-line subscribers represented the remaining 19% of total subscribers and 27% of total revenues in 2007. The fixed-line subscribers grew at the end of 2007 to 4.1 million, which is a 5% increase from the previous year. STC's fixed-line monopoly was broken in April 2007, when BatelcoBatelco and a consortium, including Atheeb GroupAtheeb Group, won Saudi Arabia's second fixed-line license, which will operate as the Etihad Atheeb Telecommunication Company. PCCW (Hong Kong) and Verizon (US) are the other two licensed to manage fixed-line operators in Saudi Arabia.

The company began expanding beyond the kingdom by completing its first acquisition of 25% of Malaysian-based Maxis Group in September 2007 for SAR11.4 billion (USD3.04 billion). Maxis Group, a holding company with telecom investments, manages a mobile GSM in Malaysia and India and had 13 million subscribers at the end of 2006. The deal also included a 51% stake in Maxis' Indonesian subsidiary PT Natrindo Telepon Seluler, which has a license to operate a third generation mobile network.

Regionally, STC acquired 26% of Kuwait's third mobile license in December 2007, for SAR3.422 billion (USD924.6 million) and 35% of UAE-based Oger Telecom in January 2008, for SAR10.71billion (USD2.85 billion). Oger Telecom manages fixed-line, telecom and Internet service providers in the MENA region—it had 35 million subscribers and SAR25.9 billion (USD6.9 billion) in revenues at the end of 2006.

Locally, STC owns and has investments in several companies including ArabSat, a satellite communications and television broadcasting company. Other subsidiaries include the Arab Submarine Cables Company, which constructs, leases, manages and operates submarine cables; AwalNet, one of the largest Internet service providers in Saudi Arabia with a 25-30% market share and 602,794 subscribers; and Tejari Saudi Arabia, which manages and operates electronic markets and platforms in addition to providing e-commerce services.