stc Group CEO, Nasser Sulaiman Al Nasser, announced that KSA holds a leading position globally in terms of communications infrastructure in general, and digital communications in particular. Al Nasser said that in 3 years, KSA has jumped from No. 105 to No. 10 globally at the end of 2019 in terms of internet speed according to the evaluations of the relevant international references. He added that stc's internet speed has multiplied 7 times over in 3 years.
Al Nasser praised the government's efforts and the leadership's support over the years in granting frequencies and benefits at the current stage and deploying fiber optics during the last 3 years, creating an advanced infrastructure of fiber optics for 4G and 5G services.
He said that all telecommunication companies in the Kingdom are portraying the Kingdom’s leadership by being worthy competitors working hand-in-hand to provide digital services of the highest speed to the healthcare sector and for distance education and home entertainment.
Al Nasser said that over the past few days, stc has witnessed unprecedented traffic on its networks by many companies which are working remotely. There was a 1128% growth in traffic for this purpose, a 30-40% increase in data traffic, 300% growth for online gaming platforms, 1000% for education, 200% for healthcare, 132% for TV content, 177% increase in the use of healthcare platforms, 73% growth in using social media applications and a 70% increase in using education and health applications.
He added that over 3 million houses throughout KSA have been provided with a network spread across all governorates and serving the housing, healthcare and education sectors. He said that a 50% discount was applied for fiber optics services to reduce the cost to this network's users for this period.
In relation to the procedures taken by stc to help SMEs, Al Nasser said that stc has incurred the suspension fees for SMEs wishing to suspend their services until the end of April to take the necessary precautions against the coronavirus.
