The total mobile services revenue in the Saudi Arabia is set to increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.3% from $12.7 billion in 2023 to $17.3 billion in 2028, mainly due to the rising adoption of mobile data services, forecasts GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

According to Global Data’s Saudi Arabia Mobile Broadband Forecast (Q3 2023), while the mobile voice service revenue will decline at a CAGR of 3.2% between 2023 and 2028, in line with the drop in mobile voice (average revenue per user) ARPU levels, mobile data service revenue will grow at the fastest CAGR of 9.6% due to rise in the adoption of 5G services.

The average monthly mobile data usage is forecast to increase from 44.3 GB in 2023 to 89.8 GB in 2028, driven by the growing consumption of high-bandwidth online video services and social media content over smartphones on the back of data centric plans offered by operators. For instance, Zain KSA is offering an additional 150GB of social media data to access apps like Youtube and Facebook along with 150GB prepaid mobile internet plan priced SAR458.85 ($122), which is valid for three months.

Kantipudi Pradeepthi, Telecom Analyst at GlobalData, says: “4G will remain the leading mobile technology by subscriptions in Saudi Arabia until 2025. 5G subscriptions will surpass 4G subscriptions and go on to account for 84% share of the total mobile subscriptions in 2028, driven by the 5G network expansion initiatives of the telecom regulator and mobile operators.

“Saudi Telecom Company (STC) led the mobile services market in Saudi Arabia, in terms of mobile subscriptions, in 2023, followed by Mobily. STC is expected to retain its leading position through 2028, primarily driven by its strong focus on accelerating 5G service expansions and tapping opportunities in the M2M/IoT segment.”