Market structure and competition in Europe: confirming the inverted-U

Saudi Arabia is a leading country in digital transformation, with mobile connectivity playing a central role in supporting economic growth, innovation and Vision 2030. This study assesses Saudi Arabia’s mobile quality of service (QoS) and market status in a global context, with a focus on digital infrastructure benchmarking, 5G development, public policy, QoS obligations and alignment with international best practice.

Different approaches to net neutrality regulation serve as a natural experiment, allowing us to empirically assess real-world impacts. We find no evidence of net neutrality regulations increasing internet content diversity or consumer welfare. The lack of clear evidence on the benefits of regulation combined with unintended negative impacts on operators call for a re-evaluation of existing net neutrality regulations.

Many European markets are lagging behind in terms of network quality and the deployment of advanced mobile networks. To quantify the investment required for Europe to meet its 5G goals and regain its global leadership in mobile connectivity, GSMA Intelligence conducted a detailed economic modelling exercise.