How new spectrum release is paving the way for future broadband connectivity in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is currently one of the leading countries in the world in terms of Mobile Broadband quality. This is a direct result of the reformative spectrum policies adopted by the Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) over the recent years. By making large contiguous spectrum bands available to the mobile industry, in a predictable and timely manner the CITC has spurred growth in the mobile sector enabling the Kingdom’s Vision 2030.

The recent release of ‘Spectrum Outlook for Commercial and Innovative Use 2021- 2023’ by the CITC is another step in the same positive direction and it further reiterates CITC’s commitment to the vision ‘Unlock the potential of radiocommunication in Saudi Arabia for a smarter and safer future’.

The Spectrum outlook details release of additional licensed spectrum across low, mid and high bands. This would allow the Communications Service Providers (CSPs) to offer quality mobile broadband services, in a reliable manner, thereby ensuring connectivity and enabling innovation across the Kingdom.

The allocation of 600MHz and 3800-4000MHz and mmWave for mobile is of particular importance. Through this allocation CITC has clearly taken the steps needed to ensure quality mobile broadband services can be delivered to citizens across the Kingdom.

The additional C-band spectrum is needed to sustain the ever-increasing coverage and capacity needs of the Kingdom’s thriving cities while at the same time the budding ecosystem of 600 MHz will enable the CSPs to provide cost-efficient mobile broadband coverage to the vast sub-urban and rural areas of KSA.

The mmWave on the other hand, can deliver multi-gigabit speeds, ultra-high capacity, and ultra-low latency. These characteristics of 5G mmWave will improve surveillance and video streaming/broadcasts, everywhere Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality (AR/VR) for enhanced online gaming experiences, and the evolution of industry through 5G smart factory use-cases.

Ericsson is proud to have supported the pioneering 5G deployments in KSA with our partners and, with our extensive radio network portfolio, we are happy to support CSPs with deployments in the newly allocated spectrum bands. Through this spectrum strategy the CITC has clearly played its role to deliver on the Saudi Vision 2030 and we are looking forward to playing our part by bring our best products and solutions to Kingdom in support of this strategy.