Households in Kuwait, along with foreign residents, spent more on communications services at the start of 2026 than they did a year earlier. Balance of payments data shows spending rose 7.8 percent year on year, hitting 483.2 million dinars in the first quarter. That figure is 35 million dinars higher than the 448.2 million dinars recorded in the same period of 2025. The growth came even though outlays fell in another part of the sector. Spending on communications sits within the country's services trade with the rest of the world, which is where the data comes from. A jump of that size in a single quarter points to steady demand for mobile and internet services. Connectivity costs have been creeping up across the Gulf as data use keeps expanding. The quarterly numbers offer an early sign of how consumer habits are moving in Kuwait's services economy.