It was not until relatively recently that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) was opened up for tourism.
It took until 2019 before tourist visas were issued.
Previously, primarily those visiting the Kingdom for work, Hajj, or Umrah could enter the country.
Saudi Arabia has always been an interesting case in terms of mobile telecommunications.
It has been in the top 15 with the fastest speeds for the longest (with a few of its neighboring Gulf states).
So, I wanted to try out the Saudi networks for the longest.
In Saudi Arabia, I tried out three Saudi SIM cards, including STC Saudi Arabia, and seven travel eSIMs (Saudi Arabia-only ones, regional ones & a global one).
I spent over 250 USD for my Saudi Arabia SIM card and travel eSIM review series – I went all out 😎.
In most countries, getting a local SIM card is the cheapest way to stay connected (and you will have a local phone number, something you often do not get with a travel eSIM).
The same can be said about Saudi Arabia, where SIM cards are not too expensive – even the tourist ones or those sold at international airports.
STC, meaning Saudi Telecommunications Company, is known for being (one of) the best in the three countries it operates (including Bahrain and Kuwait).
So, is it the best on its home turf? Let's find out.
Original publication: 11th of January 2024. Last updated: 23rd of January 2024.
Table of Contents
Who is STC Saudi Arabia?
STC KSA, just STC, is the largest mobile operator in Saudi Arabia.
STC stands for Saudi Telecom Company (but the company is also active in Bahrain and Kuwait).
The mobile operator is regarded as the best in the Kingdom.
In Saudi Arabia, you have three mobile operators and three Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) offering prepaid services easily accessible to travelers:
- STC KSA
- Mobily
- Zain KSA
- Jawwy (STC KSA sub-brand)
- Lebara Mobile KSA (Mobily MVNO)
- Virgin Mobile KSA (STC KSA MVNO)
As you know, I tested the other two mobile operators during my stay in Saudi Arabia. You can read them here: Mobily & Zain Saudi Arabia.
The first section of this review will be about STC's coverage, but here is a quick overview of the frequencies used by STC:
- 2G: 900 MHz & 1800 MHz
- 3G: N/A – phased out in 2022
- 4G/LTE: 700 MHz (Band 12), 1800 MHz (Band 3), 2100 MHz (Band 1) & 2300 MHz (Band 40)
- 5G NR: 3500 MHz (n78)
Followed by the APN settings:
- Name: JAWALNet
- APN: jawalnet.com.sa
Note: leave anything not mentioned above untouched.
STC Saudi Arabia Coverage + My Experience
Depending on who you ask, coverage is more important than the speed you can get with a mobile operator.
Some others may value speed more (because they stay in urban areas where coverage is expected, for example).
A balance of both is essential (although I focus on speed slightly more than coverage – I am not an off-the-beaten-track kind of guy).
So, how good or bad is STC's coverage?
Fantastic, you can say – but you should not expect anything in deserts.
With that, I mean not being near a paved road or something. You will still have reception there if people live nearby or it is a tourist attraction. But if you go to the middle of nowhere, expect no reception at all.
But even then, you will have close to perfect reception in populated areas with any Saudi mobile operator (all with an availability score of more than 95.7%).
When looking at 5G NR availability, STC has the best availability (22.0%). Followed by Mobily (20.8% – review) and Zain Saudi Arabia (19.9% – review).
Those are excellent figures, but how was my coverage experience with STC?
Honestly, it was perfect – although I was in Jeddah/Saudi Arabia shorter than I would have wanted to be, affecting the results.
Initially, I was supposed to be in Riyadh for two days. Because I wanted to visit my friend, Majed, in Qatar instead, I chose Jeddah as a long layover (24 hours). Saudia thought our afternoon flight to Casablanca (Morocco) was scheduled at a sensible time and pushed it to the early morning. To make things worse, the drive from the airport to the hotel took 1:30 hours instead of 30 minutes due to rush hour and multiple accidents – even less time in the Kingdom 🥲. Oh yeah, people drive like maniacs in KSA!
But yeah, I had no reception issues with STC – and I was on 5G NR more often than expected.
Below is an STC coverage map before I tell you how to get an STC SIM card and how much they cost.
How to Get an STC Saudi Arabia SIM Card (or eSIM) + Prices
You can get an STC Saudi Arabia SIM card at STC stores and international airports, including Jeddah-King Abdulaziz International Airport (JED).
Unlike most countries, including those in neighboring Middle Eastern/Gulf countries, I do not actively discourage you from getting a SIM card at a Saudi airport.
Mostly because they are not overpriced (the so-called tourist/convenience tax) compared to the official prices.
Not only is it more convenient to get a SIM card at an airport because the employees there are efficient and proficient with the activation process (at least at Jeddah Airport), but the waiting time can be significantly shorter than at an STC store.
In normal STC stores, all types of customers go to the store to deal with their issues or purchases. Some inquiries can take ages to resolve, and there are not always enough employees to help you. At airports, the staff members deal with tourists wanting SIM cards – quicker and easier than dealing with a complicated billing inquiry, for example.
But that does not mean you will be done within a minute at airports… but it will be faster than you think (especially compared to airports worldwide).
I bought my SIM card at Jeddah-King Abdulaziz International Airport (JED).
The guide above covers all you need to know about buying a SIM card at that airport, including options from other mobile operators. I encourage you to read if you fly into Jeddah and want to compare STC's offers with its competition.
There, it only sells a handful of its Sawa Visitor SIM cards (aka its tourist line).
Unlike STC's competitors, regular SIM cards are not sold here (you would have to go to Jeddah proper or wherever your final destination is).
During Hajj, STC may have Hajj plans (but it has not been as consistent as its competitors).
Unfortunately, STC does not have Umrah-specific plans for those performing their Umrah.
Worry not; the plans sold at Jeddah Airport are generous and relatively inexpensive (compared to its competitors).
At the airport, STC did not have a paper or booklet with the plans it sells.
In fact, the salespeople cannot be bothered to tell you what they have.
Instead, they are shown on a screen that switches languages every few seconds.
STC sells three Sawa Visitor plans at Jeddah Airport: Sawa Visitor 55, Sawa Visitor 70 & Sawa Visitor 100.
What do these plans entail? Let me tell you:
| Price | Plan | Data 1 | Minutes 2 | Validity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 63.25 SAR | Sawa Visitor Flex 55 | 15 GB | 120 minutes | 14 days |
| 80.50 SAR | Sawa Visitor Flex 70 | 20 GB | 180 minutes | 21 days |
| 115 SAR | Sawa Visitor Flex 100 | 40 GB | 300 minutes | 28 days |
1 5G NR access
2 local and international minutes. International minutes can be used for calls to Bahrain, Bangladesh, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, the Philippines, Qatar, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria, the United Arab Emirates & Yemen
As you probably noticed, the quoted prices are higher than in the photo I took.
That is because the ones in the photo are VAT-exclusive, while the ones I listed are VAT-inclusive (15%).
From January 2018 to July 2020, the VAT rate in the Kingdom was 5% (previously, VAT did not exist).
From July 2020, the VAT rate increased from 5% to 15%.
And in all these years, STC has not bothered to show its prices inclusive of taxes at its airports 🙄.
Anyway, I bought the Sawa Visitor Flex 55 SIM card because I had less than 24 hours in Jeddah.
I paid 63.25 SAR for it by card (and you can pay by cash if you want, but only in Saudi Riyal (SAR)).
Before I got my SIM card, I had to hand over my passport and show my visa number (I had an eVisa, so I had to show the PDF document to the salesperson).
Because I flew with Saudia and had an onward flight with it too (within 96 hours/4 days), I was eligible for a reduced stopover visa (94 SAR/25 USD) instead of the regular tourist (e)Visa (535 SAR/142 USD – multiple entries for up to 90 days each stay within a year).
If you fly with Flynas or Saudia (like I did) with Saudi Arabia as a stopover and not as a final destination (so from country A flying to Saudi Arabia for less than 96 to country B with the same airline (Flynas or Saudi), you can get the Stopover Visa for free. But fees may apply. I had to pay 94 SAR because I booked my flights before the 90-day timeframe. Although others claim these “free” visas have not been free for a while.
If a visa label has been attached to your passport, you only have to show that one.
Biometrics, your fingerprint(s), are also captured as part of Saudi Arabia's SIM card registration laws.
STC captures your right index finger and right little finger (pinky).
Once all is settled, the SIM card is handed to you… and you have to figure things out yourself.
Well, not really – the SIM card is ready to go once they hand it to you.
But almost all mobile operators selling SIM cards at airports, and even regular stores, I have been to at least want to confirm your SIM card work.
This was not the case with the STC employees at Jeddah Airport 🗿.
Anyway, once you have inserted your SIM card into your phone, you will get a text message from STC (900).
The first one I received was about being successfully enrolling in marketing text messages.
Yeah… no thanks. I texted “3311” back to the same number (900) to unsubscribe.
And that was it – that is how I got my STC SIM card at Jeddah Airport.
Your experience should be similar if you buy your SIM card from another international airport.
If you get an STC SIM card from a regular STC store (so not at an airport), more options should be available to you.
As a traveler or someone doing Hajj or Umrah, it may be more challenging to get a normal STC plan instead of a visitor package – you may have to go to multiple shops to get what you want.
But at least more Sawa Visitor plans will be available to you.
Getting a standard STC prepaid plan will be much easier if you have a long-term or residence visa.
I encourage you to check out my Saudi Arabia SIM card buying guide to explore all your options.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot – does STC have eSIMs for prepaid customers?
Yes, it does. But they are not sold at airports (such as Jeddah Airport) – you need to visit an STC store.
And they are often unavailable for Sawa Visitor plans – only regular Sawa prepaid plans.
You can also consider a travel eSIM from Airalo, Alosim, Holafly, or Nomad – all of which I also tried out (including regional and global eSIMs).
You can read more about them in my Saudi Arabia eSIM buying guide or individual reviews (on the Saudi Arabia review page).
STC Saudi Arabia Top-Up, Recharge & Balance Check
STC top-up vouchers are sold in STC stores and many other establishments, such as kiosks, gas stations, and grocery stores.
To top up your STC SIM card, dial *155*VoucherCode#. The same can be done by texting 155*VoucherCode# to 1500 or VoucherCode155 to 900.
For example, if your voucher code is 123456, you would dial *155*123456#, text 155*123456# to 1500, or text 123456 155 to 900.
You can also tell the salesperson how much credit you want, your phone number, pay, and they will top up your SIM card with the POS system.
You can also recharge online with (international) debit and credit cards.
Dial *166#, call 1500, or text 8888 to 9010 to check your STC balance.
You can also top up and check your balance on the mySTC KSA app (Android/iOS).
STC Saudi Arabia Speed Test Results in Saudi Arabia
STC Saudi Arabia is regarded as the fastest mobile operator in Saudi Arabia in Q4 2023 by Opensignal.
With a 5G NR average download of 242.40 Mbps, STC was slightly faster than Mobily (210.90 Mbps – review) and Zain Saudi Arabia (198.20 Mbps – review).
When looking at 4G/LTE average download speeds, STC was leading the pack with 40.20 Mbps, tightly followed by Mobily (38 Mbps) and far ahead of Zain KSA (24.10 Mbps).
In terms of uploading, STC still has the fastest average (11.10 Mbps), followed by Mobily (8.90 Mbps) and Zain KSA (6.80 Mbps).
And on 5G NR, STC is also the fastest (25.10 Mbps), ahead of Mobily (23.80 Mbps) and Zain KSA (17.60 Mbps).
I suspect all these numbers to be higher due to Opensignal having far fewer data points than Speedtest (which did not have a report out for the country at the time of writing).
So you can expect even faster speeds with STC, Mobily & Zain KSA 😎.
One thing I like about STC, and all the Saudi mobile operators, is that 5G NR is available to prepaid customers without additional costs.
You do not have to get the most expensive plan to access its 5G NR network (unlike some other mobile operators worldwide).
Or worse, that feature being restricted to postpaid customers.
So, during my short time in Jeddah, I had 5G NR access with my Sawa Visitor SIM card (which cost 63.25 SAR, if you remember).
I did speed tests with the Speedtest app throughout Jeddah.
For reference, I consider an average download speed of 25 Mbps and an average upload speed of 10 Mbps fast enough.
Why is that? A more than 25 Mbps download speed is enough to video stream content @ 4k resolution.
Social media sites that do live streaming, like Facebook Live, recommend an upload speed of at least 10 Mbps.
I have way higher standards, but not everyone demands a download speed of 500 Mbps 🤪.
In the section below, you will find various colors and formatting.
Results in dark green mean that the result was the fastest download or upload among all SIM cards and travel eSIMs I tested at that location.
Whereas results in light green were the fastest download or upload within the category (among all SIM cards OR all travel eSIMs) but not the fastest when considering the other category.
The same applies to dark red and light orange results – the slowest download or upload among all (dark red) or the slowest within a category (light orange).
All underlined results are on 5G NR, while results in italics are on 3G – results without additional formatting are on 4G/LTE.
That should clear up the colorful speed test results in the next section.
For now, let's see how STC performed in Jeddah.
STC Saudi Arabia in Jeddah Speed Test Results
Even though my time in Jeddah was not as long as I planned, I did as many tests as possible.
However, this resulted in the results being more unreliable than usual.
At least I have a reason to revisit Saudi Arabia 😎.
STC Saudi Arabia SIM cards could be bought in the arrivals hall of Jeddah-King Abdulaziz International Airport (not at baggage claim as with some other airports).
As a result, I only tested at five locations with Saudi SIM cards (whereas I could test at seven with my travel eSIMs because I pre-installed them and used them upon arrival).
So here are the results:
Blazing-fast speeds with STC Saudi Arabia in Jeddah!
Even with the limited results I got, STC Saudi Arabia was significantly faster than Mobily and Zain Saudi Arabia (in that order – just as determined by Opensignal in the earlier section).
Let's go through each test location because there are only five anyway.
At Albaik (located at Nahdat at Talif), STC outdid its competitors by a lot (225.54 Mbps (5G) vs 69.02 Mbps (5G) on Mobily and 131.18 Mbps (5G) on Zain Saudi Arabia).
Surprisingly, the Airalo Red Sand eSIM was faster than Zain Saudi Arabia (218.53 Mbps (5G))… even though it uses the same network.
That happens sometimes – Zain Saudi Arabia does not throttle prepaid customers (which some mobile operators do).
At the arrivals hall at Jeddah-King Abdulaziz International Airport, I got a download speed of 118.27 Mbps on 4G/LTE.
This was slightly slower than Mobily (141.37 Mbps (5G)) but significantly faster than Zain Saudi Arabia (18.95 Mbps (4G)).
The SIM card excelled at the hotel I stayed at – Novotel Jeddah Tahlia, where I got a download speed of 668.09 Mbps (5G).
Way faster than Mobily (149.38 Mbps (5G)) and Zain Saudi Arabia (268.88 Mbps (5G)).
This was the only location where my Zain SIM card was faster than Mobily.
The results at Prince Majid Park were also impressive, especially for 4G/LTE – 300.30 Mbps.
While I got 225.80 Mbps (5G) with Mobily and 63.55 Mbps (4G) with Zain Saudi Arabia.
At least, we have the results at Red Sea Mall: 169.82 Mbps (4G), while I got 213.25 Mbps (5G) with Mobily and 123.94 Mbps (4G) with Zain Saudi Arabia.
Overall, I got an average download speed of 296.40 Mbps with my STC SIM card (median of 225.54 Mbps).
That is quite impressive!
Regarding upload speeds, there is not much to say – all results were faster than 20 Mbps (with 20.10 Mbps being the lowest (5G at Novotel) and 41.61 Mbps being the highest (5G at Albaik).
Mobily and Zain Saudi Arabia did well too, with neither having a result slower than 10 Mbps (the slowest was 13.51 Mbps (5G) with Mobily at Red Sea Mall).
So yeah, you will be fine with the STC SIM card in Jeddah.
My Overall Experience with STC Saudi Arabia – Is It Worth Your Money?
I would recommend STC Saudi Arabia, and it would be one of my top recommendations for anyone wanting to buy a Saudi SIM card.
Getting an STC SIM card at Jeddah-King Abdulaziz International Airport was easy, and the activation process was smooth and quick.
This can be the opposite during peak airport hours (especially during Hajj at Jeddah Airport).
If you do not want to buy a SIM card at the airport, you may have to deal with (even) longer queues, depending on the STC store you visit.
Regardless of your plan, whether for tourists or a regular Sawa package, you will have 5G NR access on the STC network without paying a surcharge (assuming your phone supports 5G NR).
STC has the best reception throughout Saudi Arabia, so you should have no trouble having a cellular connection in populated areas.
If you go to the middle of a desert where nobody lives except nothing.
Surprisingly, at airports, STC has the cheapest plans available (63.25 SAR, while its competitors start from 115 SAR instead).
Kind of unusual for the largest mobile operator in a country 🤔.
Taking the five speed tests into account, I had an average download speed of 296.40 Mbps and a median download speed of 225.54 Mbps with STC – the fastest of all the Saudi SIM cards I tested.
When looking at upload speeds, I had an average upload speed of 31.14 Mbps and a median upload speed of 27.84 Mbps with STC – again, both being the fastest in the Kingdom.
Unfortunately, most travel eSIMs, including those I tested in the country, do not have access to the STC network (most use Zain Saudi Arabia (review) – the worst in the country).
This does not necessarily mean you will have an awful experience with them.
It is just that you often cannot use the best network in the country (except for the Nomad Middle East eSIM (review)).
With excellent coverage, reasonably priced data-featured prepaid plans/tourist SIM cards & blazing-fast (5G NR) speeds, there is nothing to complain about STC Saudi Arabia, which is why I recommend it.
Saudi Arabia SIM Card & eSIM Reviews
Besides Mobily, I also tested STC Saudi Arabia and Zain Saudi Arabia in the Kingdom.
I encourage you to read those reviews to decide which Saudi SIM card suits your needs.
>>> STC Saudi Arabia | Zain Saudi Arabia <<<
Besides Saudi SIM cards, I also tried various travel eSIMs from Airalo, Alosim, Holafly & Nomad.
You can find those below.
>>> Airalo Red Sand (Saudi Arabia) eSIM | Airalo Menalink (Middle East) eSIM in Saudi Arabia | Airalo Discover (global) eSIM in Saudi Arabia | Alosim Saudi Arabia eSIM | Holafly Saudi Arabia eSIM | Nomad Saudi Arabia eSIM | Nomad Middle East eSIM in Saudi Arabia <<<
- Check out my eSIM reviews page if you want to read all the other eSIM reviews I have written, including those I tested in other Middle Eastern countries.
