RIYADH: 5G services in Saudi Arabia have increased during the fourth quarter of 2020 and will reach seven additional cities and provinces, he Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) announced on Wednesday.

The figures bring the total of covered areas by the 5G services to 51 cities and provinces in various regions of the Kingdom.

CITC’s quarterly “Meqyas” report for internet speeds and digital content access speed revealed that Zain is top of the list of the spread of 5G services in the Kingdom, covering 44 cities and provinces, followed by the Saudi Telecom Company STC in 22 and finally Mobily in 21 cities and provinces.

The report observed an average download speed of 315.55 Mbps for the fifth generation in the kingdom and the Saudi Telecom Company (STC) recorded the highest average download speed for the mobile Internet for 5G service at a speed of up to 342.35 Mbps, followed by Zain, with an average speed of 338.12, and Mobily with an average download speed of 220.86 Mbps, the second and third places respectively.

The “Meqyas” report also revealed that Zain led the performance of telecom service providers in deploying 5G services in all regions of the Kingdom, except for the Makkah region, in which Mobily recorded the best performance during the last quarter of 2020.