KUWAIT CITY – 20 February 2026: The Kuwait Authority for Partnership Projects (KAPP) has received conditional approval from the State Audit Bureau (SAB) to award a KWD19.9 million ($64.8 million) contract to modernise the country’s fixed-line telecommunications infrastructure.
According to local reports, KAPP submitted the tender to SAB on January 14, with approval granted earlier this week.
The project, being implemented in partnership with the Ministry of Communications, aims to deploy a nationwide fibre optic network covering at least 90% of households by 2028. The upgraded infrastructure is expected to support data speeds of up to 10 Gbps in its initial phase.
The scope of the contract includes the design, financing, construction, operation, maintenance and transformation of the ministry’s fixed-line network. This covers both active and passive infrastructure, as well as the gradual upgrade and replacement of the legacy copper network.
While the winning bidder has not yet been publicly disclosed, the selected company will be responsible for operating the ministry’s existing network and expanding fibre coverage across all areas of Kuwait.
The initiative is expected to lay the groundwork for smart city services and support the government’s ‘New Kuwait 2035’ vision by strengthening national digital infrastructure.
The fixed-line modernisation could also help stabilise revenue streams for the Ministry of Communications, which has seen declining income from fixed-line services as consumers increasingly shift to high-speed 4G and 5G mobile networks. By the end of 2024, Kuwait ranked third globally in Ookla’s Speedtest Global Index, with average mobile data speeds of 258.51 Mbps.
