There were 54.8 million subscribers of mobile telecommunication services and 12.5 million subscriptions to Internet services in the first half of the year, according to a quarterly bulletin issued Wednesday by Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC). The report showed that pre-paid subscribers represented 87 percent of mobile subscriptions, increasing the spread of mobile telecommunication services among the Kingdom's population. The number of landline telephones by the end of the first half of 2011 reached 4.49 million. Of these, 3.37 million are residence lines, forming 75 percent of the total operating lines. With this, the percentage of the spread of landline telephones compared to the population reached about 16 percent. The bulletin also sheds light on details on the percentage of growth and spread of broadband services, which have reached 33 percent for residential use. The total number of subscriptions in broadband services through mobile telecommunications networks reached about 11 million. The bulletin, which is issued by CITC in both Arabic and English, is a quarterly publication concerned with monitoring the most important figures in the telecommunications and information technology sector in the Kingdom and can be accessed on the official website, www.citc.gov.sa.
