Original telecommunications market research and telecommunications sector trend analysis for the national telecommunications industry.

Competitive intelligence, regional telecommunications company rankings and SWOT analyses on international and domestic telecommunications companies.

The Report provides industry professionals and researchers, operators, equipment suppliers and vendors, corporate and financial services analysts and regulatory bodies with independent forecasts and competitive intelligence on the national telecommunications industry.

" The Asia Telecommunications Report is used for benchmarking industry views against BMI's independent forecasts; for market research and analysis of industry trends. It also provides competitive intelligence on leading companies. "
Chi-Wen Tsai, Managing Director, ROHDE & SCHWARZ Taiwan Ltd

Key Benefits of Report

-Benchmark BMI's Independent 5-Year Telecommunications Industry Forecast to test other views - a key input for successful budgeting and strategic business planning in the national telecommunications market.
-Target Business Opportunities & Risks in the Telecommunications Sector through our reviews of latest industry trends, regulatory changes, and major deals, projects and investments.
-Exploit Latest Competitive Telecommunications Intelligence & company SWOTS on your competitors and peers through company rankings by sales, market share, investments and leading products and services.

Executive Summary
Summary of BMI's key industry forecasts and trend analysis, covering ICT, fixed-line, mobile and internet markets, and headline news of key industry events from the latest quarter.

Market Overview
At-a-glance outlook of the structure, size and value of the industry, including an overview of key players and a snapshot of regional penetration rates for fixed-line, mobile and internet markets.

Business Environment Rankings
BMI provides a cross-border analysis of telecoms regulatory systems across regional markets, and their investor prospects, discussing the merits and downfalls of each country's business environment, and ranking them in order of competitiveness. The rankings take into account industry factors, such as Market Maturity, Growth Potential, Competitive Environment and Licensing Framework in addition to BMI's political and economic risk ratings.

BMI 5-Year Industry Forecast
Historic data series and 5-year forecasts to end-2012 for all key industry indicators (see list below), supported by explicit assumptions, plus analysis of key downside risks to the main forecast.

Fixed-Line Telephony - Telephone Lines ('000); Telephone Lines/100 Inhabitants;
Cellular Telephony - Phone Subscribers ('000); Mobile Phone Subscribers/ 100 Inhabitants; Mobile Phone Subscribers/100 Fixed Line Subscribers;
Internet Markets - Internet Users ('000); Internet Users/100 Inhabitants; Broadband Internet Subscribers ('000); Broadband Internet Subscribers/100 Inhabitants;
Multimedia Markets - PCs ('000); PCs/100 Inhabitants; TV households ('000s); Pay-TV subscribers ('000s); Pay-TV subscribers/100 inhabitants; Cable TV subscribers ('000s); Direct-to-Home Subscribers ('000s)
BMI 5-Year Macroeconomic Forecast
BMI forecasts for all headline macroeconomic indicators, including real GDP growth, inflation, fiscal balance, trade balance, current account and external debt.

Competitive Landscape & Rankings
Commentary on key operators highlighting ownership structures, latest available revenue figures, market share analysis and ARPU counts.

Company Profiles & SWOTS
Company profiles, including SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analyses, fully researched senior executives and contact details, business activity, leading products and services, and a record of all recent foreign direct investments and projects.

The Sector At A Glance

Key Insights On The Telecomunications sector of Saudi Arabia

The biggest talking point in Saudi Arabia's telecoms market this year will be the arrival of a second fixedline and third mobile operator, as the Kingdom moves towards greater liberalisation as part of its commitment to the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The government is currently fielding applications for the country's second fixed-line licence, with the deadline date set for March 10 2007, a delay from the original date of January 27 2007. One operator to have gone public over its wish to participate in the tender is Mobily, the Kingdom's second mobile operator. Should the licence be won by Mobily, it would give the operator an equal standing to that of STC, offering services across fixed, internet and mobile. Mobily has already spoken of its intentions to begin offering converged services, if it is provided with a fixed-line licence. This would enable the operator to take advantage of economies of scale, thereby reducing its own costs, and ultimately those of the consumer, which would see its market share increase. However, whether the regulatory body, the CITC, will be willing to offer a licence to an operator already present in the market remains to be seen.

As for the mobile market, the deadline for applications was February 24 2007 (after publication date) from January 20 2007. STC has been clearly concerned here, already having lost considerable market share to Mobily since the second operator made its entrance in 2005. As of Q306 (latest figures), STC had an estimated market share of 73%. In line with this, the market leader has begun to target specific segments of society, through diversifying its product portfolio. Included in its latest services to come out has been a prepaid package directed at the youth market aged between 18 and 25. The tariff offers one of the lowest 3G charges. Clearly aware that younger people are more in tune with new technology developments, the operator is keen to attract this new segment. STC has offered a range of services attached to its 3G tariff, made available to younger people, such as Mobile TV, internet access over mobile and video calls. However, this may not be sufficient to raise STC's revenues, and the operator is looking towards the international telecoms market, and to bring its own operations in line with other international operators. At the time of going to print, STC was reported by Trade Arabia to be in talks to borrow SAR6bn (US$1.6bn) to finance its first acquisition. Its regional peers such as Kuwait's MTC and Wataniya and UAE's Etisalat have all undergone a prolific period of international M&A activity, which has remained ongoing. In line with this, STC has said that in order to provide its customers with global connectivity, it had signed an agreement with Navlink and AT&T to deploy an AT&T Global data node in Saudi Arabia. The advanced data node from AT&T, scheduled to be operational in H107, will enable AT&T and Navlink customers to interconnect directly to STC's nationwide Multi-Protocol Lab Switching (MPLS) network. In turn, STC customers will be able to access AT&T's global network.

While we have not changed any of our forecasts for this quarter, there is growing concern among some local industry analysts over multiple SIM card ownership. A recent survey conducted by the Arab Advisors Group suggests that almost 40% of Saudi mobile users have more than one mobile subscription. Reasons for multiple SIM card ownership could be due to the increased competition (as outlined above), which, given an increase in attractive deals and promotions, is likely to have lead customers to sign up, taking advantage of the cost savings to be had. Furthermore, it is thought that some mobile users prefer to retain two lines, one personal and the other for business. In view of this, actual penetration rates could be closer to 60% as of YE06, rather than the 70% which BMI has forecast. However, given that we follow figures as provided by the market operators, BMI has retained its existing forecasts to remain in line with company data. Further, there now appears to be a crackdown on registration rules, with mobile operators seeking to tighten up the sale of unregistered prepaid SIM cards. Operators such as Mobily have stated that they now want a customer's personal details to be documented each time a SIM card is sold.