1,128% increase in traffic due to remote work: Saudi STC

Saudi Arabia holds a leading position globally in terms of communications infrastructure in general, and digital communications in particular, according to STC Group CEO Nasser Sulaiman Al-Nasser.

He said in three years, the Kingdom has gone from being No. 105 to being No. 10 globally at the end of 2019 in terms of Internet speed, adding that STC’s Internet speed has multiplied seven times over the past three years.

Al-Nasser praised the government’s efforts and the leadership’s support over the years in granting the required frequencies and benefits and deploying fiber optics, creating an advanced infrastructure for 4G and 5G services.

He said that all telecommunications companies in the Kingdom are making the country proud by being worthy competitors working hand-in-hand to provide digital services with the highest speeds to the health care sector and for distance education and home entertainment.

Al-Nasser said that over the past few days, STC has witnessed unprecedented traffic on its networks from many companies that are working remotely. There has been a 1,128 percent growth in traffic for this purpose, a 30 to 40 percent increase in data traffic, a 300 percent growth for online gaming platforms, 1,000 percent for education, 200 percent for health care, 132 percent for TV content, 177 percent increase in the use of health care platforms, 73 percent growth in using social media applications and a 70 percent increase in using education and health applications.

More than 3 million houses across the Kingdom have been provided with a network spread across all governorates and serving the housing, health care and education sectors. Al-Nasser also pointed to the 50 percent discount offered by STC for fiber optics services in order to reduce the cost to the users during this extraordinary period.

Commenting on the steps taken by the telecom operator to support small and medium enterprises (SMEs), Al-Nasser said that STC has incurred the suspension fees for all SMEs wishing to suspend their services until the end of April in wake of the COVID-19 outbreak.