RIYADH: The number of registered subscribers to mobile telephones in the Kingdom reached 53.3 million by the first quarter of 2011, a rise of over seven million in three months, according to a report by the Saudi Communications Commission (SCC). Some 46.5 million of those subscriptions — 86 percent — are prepaid. The SCC report also states that the number of Internet broadband users rose by 68 percent to 4.88 million compared to the 2.9 million users registered by the end of the first quarter of 2010. Fixed-line users numbered by the end of the first quarter of 2011 4.25 million, with residential home connections numbering 3.2 million, constituting 75 percent of all active lines. The SCC report puts the number of Internet users registered in the Kingdom by the end of the first quarter of 2011 at 11.8 million, compared to the 10 million registered by the same time last year.
