Saudi Arabia restricts SIM card ownership for locals and foreigners
Saudi Arabia has imposed restrictions on the ownership of prepaid SIM cards for citizens and foreigners in the kingdom. Foreign residents, who make up more than a third of the population, are now limited to two prepaid SIM cards across all operators, according to two people familiar with the matter. The limit applies to both voice and data lines in a country where many rely on data SIMs for internet access. Saudis are allowed to own as many as 10 prepaid SIM cards, one of the people said. "This is considered a temporary procedure to correct and remedy the large number of illegal SIM cards in the market," the Communications and Information Technology Commission, Saudi Arabia’s telecommunications regulator, said in a statement to Bloomberg. "This has resulted in the abuse of those SIM cards to carry out terrorist operations and acts harmful to national security." Bloomberg
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