Saudi Arabia to pay two state firms $1.14 bln for broadband rollout

Saudi Arabia will pay two state firms 4.26 billion riyals ($1.14 billion) to roll out fibre optic broadband to 2 million locations, the companies said on Wednesday.

Saudi Telecom Co (STC) will be paid about 2.7 billion riyals in “financial support” as part of its agreement with Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, the company said in a bourse statement.

That will be paid in installments and through financial and regulatory exemptions. The impact of the project on the company would be positive in the long term, STC said.

STC said in May it had signed an agreement with the government to connect 1.3 million housing units with fibre optic lines by the end of 2020.

Separately, Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) said it would be paid 1.56 billion riyals to connect 744,500 locations by 2020.