Riyadh - Post Report Question and Answers
Do you have any recommendations regarding mobile phones? Did you keep your home-country plan or use a local provider?
Local SIM acquired through the embassy. - Jul 2021
I brought my iPhone from home and bought a local chip, and it was fine. Be sure that your domestic phone is unlocked, though, before coming here. The U.S. embassy issues some phones as well, but they're mainly labeled in Arabic and hard to use. Some of the newer housing has no cell phone coverage, or very spotty at best, plus no wired telephones, so I guess in that case it doesn't really matter what kind of cell phone you have. - Oct 2017
Local providers STC or Mobily. I do a pay as you go SIM card. - Jan 2017
You can bring an unblocked cell phone or buy one here, they are cheap. U.S. Embassy officers will bve issued one. - May 2016
Get one here. They are unlocked, and prices are fair. - Nov 2015
Buy here, or bring unlocked from USA. - Oct 2015
STC is terrible but there aren't very many options. - Oct 2015
More than one service, reasonable prices. - Jan 2015
Embassy provides. Signal sometimes poor. - Sep 2014
I brought my iPhone from home and bought a local chip, and it's fine. Be sure that your domestic phone is unlocked, though, before coming here. The embassy issues some phones as well, but they're mainly in Arabic and hard to use. Some of the newer housing has no cell phone coverage, or very spotty at best, plus no wired telephones, so I guess in that case it doesn't really matter what kind of cell phone you have. - Mar 2014
You can bring your own but they do have companies here that sell cell phones. The American Embassy provides one to all Direct Hires. - Dec 2013
Most people go with STC for their cell phones plans. - Oct 2013
3G coverage fine in Riyadh, patchy elsewhere. - Mar 2013
Cell phones are widely available, but you can bring your own and then purchase a sim card. Prepaid and postpaid are available. However, for postpaid you will need your Saudi Identification documents to set up an account -- which takes about a month after arriving. - Apr 2011
You can get a cheap cellphone easily here, and there are lots of different plans. - Mar 2010
Mine is issued through the Embassy - Jan 2010
I used my embassy phone for everything and had few problems. One odd thing about Saudi society is that sometimes young men will call numbers randomly until they get a woman to answer, then they'll call back incessantly, just out of excitement to hear a woman's voice, and to try to arrange a meet-up. I had one harasser calling me 4-8 times a night between midnight and 4 AM before I finally sent my phone home with a male coworker who'd been raised in Riyadh. When the harasser called at 1 AM, my coworker screamed at the caller for calling his 'wife.' No problems after that. - Dec 2009
Easy to purchase in country and not that expensive. - Oct 2008
International calls are surprisingly inexpensive. - Aug 2008
