The Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) has approved a new regulation that allows expatriates to subscribe to only two mobile phone services. The new regulation has been prompted by the misuse of mobile phones for terrorist activities and operations that undermine the Kingdom's security. In a statement, the CITC assured customers that this measure was temporary aimed at correcting irregularities in the sector. The new regulation is expected to adversely affect telecom companies as it did when the CITC introduced a regulation making it mandatory for service providers to register fingerprints of subscribers to establish identities rather than with only national IDs or Iqamas. According to CITC statistics, there were 49 million mobile subscriptions in Saudi Arabia by the end of the third quarter of 2016, of which approximately 83 percent were prepaid subscriptions. The number of expats in Saudi Arabia exceeds 10 million.
