The competitive landscape in Saudi Arabia’s telecoms market has changed significantly over the past year with the launch of two new players, one each in the fixed-line and mobile markets. The new entrants are expected to intensify competition, resulting in improved services and reduced tariffs for customers.
The Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC), the national regulator, is focusing its efforts on revised retail and wholesale pricing. In addition, CITC is revising the incumbent’s wholesale reference offer to mandate new services such as call origination and provision of interconnection at international cable landing points, as well as to reduce the overall interconnection and access charges. A reduction in these charges would enable new operators to offer competitive pricing for retail services, further bringing down the retail tariffs for end users.
