Saudi Arabia’s fixed broadband market is now clearly fiber-led. As of September 2025, FTTH makes up 69% of all fixed broadband subscriptions—2.19 million out of 3.19 million—while the overall fixed broadband base grew 4.6% year over year. Operators are intensifying FTTH upgrades in urban areas. The CST’s Open Access framework supports this transition by enabling competition over shared fiber infrastructure, thereby elevating the importance of differentiated plan design, efficient installation, and superior in-home Wi-Fi performance. In tandem, Fixed wireless access (FWA) is emerging as a vital complement for remote and rural locations where fiber expansion remains challenging, reaching 650k subscriptions by Sep 2025—20% of the total market.

stc’s modernization strategy focuses on expanding FTTH activations and 5G coverage. In 2024, stc connected 191,859 households via FTTH, increasing total fiber-connected households to over 3.58 million by year-end. In October 2025, stc reported 125,000 new FTTH connections, continued fiber deployment, and further 5G expansion.

Mobily’s fixed strategy is increasingly framed around experience rather than footprint alone. It reported 297,000 FTTH subscribers in Q3 2025 (up 5.2% YoY) and ranks winner or joint winner in Reliability Experience metrics in seven of eight cities in this report. Taken together, this indicates Mobily is using fiber investment not just to extend reach, but to strengthen day-to-day service reliability — an increasingly important differentiator as the market matures and household expectations shift from “availability” to “always-on” performance.

Other operators are adopting targeted strategies to compete effectively. Salam, recognized as Saudi Arabia’s Best Home Internet in this report, is pursuing an asset-light approach — leveraging wholesale agreements and selective infrastructure investments to speed market entry and agility. Salam is also piloting advanced FWA technologies to enhance performance in areas with limited fiber. Its fiber transaction with Technical Links Services Company Limited (TLS) and acquisition of a 60% stake highlight a focus on capital efficiency; the first phase alone addressed 537,000 access points across several cities and neighborhoods. This approach distinguishes Salam by prioritizing flexibility and targeted investment.

Zain KSA, in turn, is accelerating its 5G Home offering to rapidly increase its household broadband footprint, supplementing this with FTTH deployments wherever open-access arrangements permit. This strategy aligns with the broader trend: 5G FWA is increasingly becoming a mainstream home broadband option — particularly in areas where fiber coverage is still limited. Zain’s value proposition also emphasizes flexibility in customer equipment and installation, aiming to attract households seeking a customizable and swift connectivity solution.

In this report, Opensignal assesses the real-world fixed broadband experience across Saudi Arabia and, separately, across eight of its regions. To reflect how households actually use fixed connectivity, we evaluate five measures of experience: Consistent Quality, Download Speed, Upload Speed, Video Experience, and Reliability Experience. As Saudi Arabia’s market shifts toward FTTH plus scaled FWA, these measures are increasingly complementary: headline speeds signal capacity, but it is consistency and reliability that most strongly shape how users experience home broadband day to day.