Good news! Saudi Arabia’s mobile internet speed has jumped up by two places reaching the 10th position worldwide in April 2020. According to a report by international website Speed Test, the Kingdom increased the average mobile Internet speed to 55.71 MB per second.
The Saudi Communications Commission also revealed that the rate of data consumption per person pre-COVID-19 amounted to 600 MB of data per day. Amidst the pandemic, the Kingdom saw a surge in internet consumption with the new precautionary measures put in place; the average rate is 920 megabytes a day which three times the global average.
In addition, Saudi Arabia’s internet speed over mobile network has improved by over 500%, a move that has been made to set the grounds for Saudi Arabia’s transition into a more digitalized nation.
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These achievements are indeed significant ones, as just three years ago Saudi Arabia was ranked 105th, as reported by Saudi Gazette. In addition, these developments come at an important time for the country, as Al Arabiya reports that internet services across Saudi Arabia are witnessing a growing demand from users due to the current lockdown in place with regards to curbing the spread of the new coronavirus.
According to a statement by Saudi Press Agency (SPA), the jump in the countries global rankings was “a fact proven by the spread of optic-fibers benefiting over 3 million households, in the Kingdom, which is another indicator to the Kingdom's robust and vivid digital infrastructure.”
Indeed, according the official Vision 2030 website, a key goal for the Saudi Arabia “is to exceed 90 percent housing coverage in densely populated cities and 66 percent in other urban zones,” while also developing building standards to facilitate the extension of broadband networks. The Kingdom is also working on strengthening the governance of digital transformation through a national council, and is aiming to improve regulations and establish an effective partnership with telecom operators to better develop this critical infrastructure.
