12 March 2017

By Irfan Mohammed

JEDDAH — The mobile SIM card sales in the Kingdom has fallen to its steepest level in five years, according to official figures.

In addition to the authorities› decision to record biometric details of subscribers, experts attribute the decline in sales to a significant number of expatriates returning home for good as a result of prevailing labor market conditions.

According to the latest statistics released by the Communication and Information Technology Commission (CITC), the Kingdom›s telecom regulator, there were 47.93 million active SIM cards in 2016 against 52.8 million in 2015, which is a drop of 4.87 million.

Meanwhile, the Kingdom has witnessed the highest growth in five years in terms of post-paid SIM card sales with an increase of about 900,00 subscribers last year.

The use of SIM cards has become more of a security concern around the globe and several countries have adopted strict security measures to curb unauthorized use in public interest. ‘Some of our regularization processes have been attributed to the decline in SIM card issuance,”said Faiz Al-Otaibi, CITC spokesman. He told Saudi Gazette that the CITC has initiated several safety and security measures to safeguard people. ‘The registration of biometrics is part of such measures,”he said, adding that the biometric registration ‘is a big leap in that direction».

The official added that there are some other measures planned by CITC for subscriber protection.

Despite the plunge in users, the Kingdom retained its position of having one of the highest mobile phone penetration rates in the world, which stood at 151 percent at the end of year, compared to 167.5 percent a year earlier.

The mobile subscriptions far outnumber the population of Saudi Arabia and prepaid cards occupy the lion›s share of 82 percent of total SIM cards in use.

One reason for multiple SIM purchases is the periodic data and call time promotions by a certain telecom service provider that subscribers of other service providers cannot benefit from. If the user contacts a number in another network, an extra charge will apply. Given this scenario, the number of prepaid subscriptions is very high compared to post-paid users.

The prepaid SIM cards are popular and preferred by low-income expatriate workers as they can be easily obtained after registering biometric details with the service providers. In addition, the users can control their cost based on their budget. Saudi Arabia hosts the largest number of expatriate workers in the Gulf region who need to conduct constant communications with their families back home, making high mobile data usage a necessity. However, with the impending departure of a large number of expatriate workers, the SIM card sale is set to drop further.

The popularity of mobile technology is also driving up Internet usage.

© The Saudi Gazette 2017