The Saudi Arabian telecom market is expected to generate $17.2 billion in service revenues by 2016, a compound annual growth rate of 4.2% from the $13 billion posted in 2010, according to a report from Pyramid Research.
The report noted that the market will lean heavily toward mobile data usage, with the impending commercial launch of LTE services expected to be a “significant driver of mobile data consumption.” Revenues from mobile data services are forecast to double from this year to 2016, hitting $4.2 billion, or more than half the $8 billion in expected revenues derived from voice services, a segment that is expected to witness a slight decline from $8.2 billion in revenues posted this year.
Saudi Arabia’s more than 40 million wireless devices are currently served by a handful of operators, including STC, Mobily, Zain and Bravo. The country has a penetration rate of nearly 200%.
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