How many telecommunications companies are in Saudi Arabia?
Wired, wireless and satellite telecommunications.
13.3K
active registrations list telecommunications activities — 0.9% of classified registrations.
Ministry of Commerce data · Q3 2026 to 16 Sep
13,273 active commercial registrations in Saudi Arabia list telecommunications activities as of 16 September 2026 — 0.9% of all classified registrations, the 48th-largest of the 64 sectors we track.
2,647 were registered in 2025 and are still active — +15.4% on 2024, in line with the +15% across all sectors.
Riyadh (5,447), Jeddah (1,712) and Makkah (611) lead. Relative to its size, Riyadh is the most concentrated: telecommunications companies make up 1.3× the share they hold nationally.
51.7% of these registrations are companies rather than sole proprietorships, and the median company reports SAR 50,000 of paid-up capital.
- Active registrations
- 13,273
- 0.9% of classified CRs
- Registered in 2025
- 2,647
- +15.4% on 2024 · all sectors +15%
- Companies
- 51.7%
- 6,867 of 13,273
- Median company capital
- SAR 50k
- Paid-up, main registrations
Where telecommunications companies are registered
Column height: telecommunications companies by city · select a highlighted city for its page
Leading cities
Registrations, with concentration vs the national average
- Riyadh5,4471.3×
- Jeddah1,7121.2×
- Makkah6110.9×
- Dammam4060.7×
- Madinah3940.8×
- Khobar3911.3×
- Buraydah2560.8×
- Taif2180.8×
- Tabuk1810.8×
- Hail1710.7×
Concentration compares the sector's share of a city's registrations with its share nationally; 1.0× is average. Highlighted cities are above 1.15×.
Telecommunications: registrations by year of creation
Still-active registrations by the year they were created, 2015–2025. Older years read lower because cancelled registrations drop out.
Most common activities
Registrations listing each national activity code
- Telecom services resale (distributors)4,919Activity code 619015
- Internet cafés838Activity code 619011
- Space situational awareness, tracking and monitoring739Activity code 619028
- Mobile telecommunications services689Activity code 612011
- Specialized wireless network services569Activity code 612013
- IoT services on license-exempt frequencies554Activity code 619023
- IoT virtual network operator (IoT-VNO) services543Activity code 619018
- Vehicle and asset tracking services526Activity code 619021
Business structures
Legal form of registrations in the sector
- LLC6,60449.8%
- Sole proprietorship6,35847.9%
- JSC1741.3%
- SJSC610.5%
- Foreign branch410.3%
- General partnership190.1%
- Limited partnership90.1%
- GCC branch70.1%
Common questions
How many telecommunications companies are there in Saudi Arabia?
13,273 active commercial registrations list telecommunications activities as of 16 September 2026, according to Ministry of Commerce data. A registration can list several activities, so it may also count in related sectors.
Which city has the most telecommunications companies?
Riyadh, with 5,447 — 41% of the national total. Jeddah follows with 1,712.
Is the number of telecommunications companies growing?
2,647 were registered in 2025 and are still active — +15.4% on 2024, in line with the +15% across all sectors.
Can a foreign investor set up in telecommunications in Saudi Arabia?
Most activities are open to 100% foreign ownership with a MISA investment licence, though some carry conditions such as minimum capital, a Saudi partner or sector-regulator approval. Alpha Consultancy confirms the conditions for your exact activity code before you apply.
Figures are Alpha Consultancy's analysis of the Ministry of Commerce's open datasets on the Saudi Open Data Platform (open.data.gov.sa): the register of active commercial registrations (CRs) as of 16 September 2026.
Active CRsinclude main and branch registrations, as in the Ministry's own totals. Registered in a period counts CRs created in that period that were still active on 16 September 2026; registrations since cancelled are not in the source file, so older periods read lower than the number originally issued.
Partial quarter. The Ministry's Q3 2026 file is labelled as the quarter end but only contains registrations created up to 16 September 2026, so every figure here is as of that date and the latest quarter in the charts (marked *) is incomplete.
Sector figures cover the 1,443,322 active registrations (74.7%) that appear in the Ministry of Commerce's activity association file, which lists activities for registrations created up to 31 December 2025. Registrations created after that date are not yet classified. A registration counts once in each sector it is active in, so sectors overlap.
No individual business is identified on these pages; only aggregate counts are published.
Starting a business in telecommunications?
We confirm the licence conditions for your exact activity code, then take you from MISA licence to commercial registration and municipal licence.