A Brief History of the Internet in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

While the Internet has developed into a pivotal tool in world communications, Saudi Arabia was quite late in connecting it to the public, compared with developed or even other developing countries (Al-Hajery 2004). The delay in launching the Internet in Saudi Arabia came from the government's concerns and reservations about the effects of such a new service on their conservative culture. In Saudi Arabia, academic institutions were the first sectors to use the Internet before it was available to the public. According to Al-Tawil (2001).“King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) in Dhahran was the first institution to connect to the Internet in 1993 through the College of Computer Sciences and Engineering”(p. 2). However, due to the low speed of the connection, only email was provided to KFUPM. Later, King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), an