Page 21 - SAMENA Trends - April-May 2021

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Spectrum Auction in Planning in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia aspires to be among the top 20
digital economies in the world. To this effect, the
Communications and Information Technology
Commission of Saudi Arabia (CITC) has expressed its
plans to allocate or improve access to more than 23 GHz
of spectrum for a wide range of digital communication
uses as Saudi Arabia's digital transformation
accelerates. This important development underpins the
Commission's aim to expand the range of resources and
services in the country, while ensuring that the digital
ecosystem will thrive and Telecom Operators have
access to more spectrum resources for incentivizing
further investment. Such availability of spectrum
makes Saudi Arabia the country with the most spectrum
allocated for mobile use globally in the Sub-6 GHz and
Sub-30 GHz frequency ranges.

The Communications and Information Technology
Commission (CITC) has now published a public con-
sultation on its Spectrum Auction 2021 as a part of
the implementation process for ‘Spectrum Outlook for
commercial and Innovative use 2021-2023’, which was
published earlier this year. The auction consultation
is a key step towards releasing multiple critical bands
for a wide range of digital radio services. The auction
aims to allocate a wide range of bands, including 600
MHz. Moreover, the published document consults about
releasing UHF spectrum bands to provide specialized
broadband services and enable industrial IoT applica-
tions for enterprises.

CITC seeks to efficiently allocate spectrum in the
Kingdom to enable a broad range of market-driven
use cases, and aims to enable innovative use cases
across different industries and verticals as part of Saudi
Arabia’s drive to build a digital society using IoT, 5G, and
new generations of satellite technologies.
The recent spectrum decisions in Saudi Arabia are a
good way to respond to the 30% to 50% annual increase
in mobile data consumption in the region, and are a
demonstration of regulatory enablement to support the
Private Sector. The plan to allocate licensed spectrum
in the bands 600 MHz, 700 MHz, 1,500 MHz, extended
2,100 MHz, 3,800 – 4,000 MHz and 26 GHz frequency
bands for mobile use between 2021 and 2023, would
set a new precedence in the world, and it may also
help achieve a balance between complementary
technologies in cases where the market cannot deliver,
monitor spectrum utilization for improved decision CITC is inviting all parties nationally and internationally, including
making, and assist innovation by making a variety of wireless technology investors, ICT service providers and vendors, as well
bands available for new technologies from trial licenses as industrial entities and spectrum users, to provide their feedback and
to shared and short-term access. engage in this process to better support the outcomes of this auction.
Participants are invited to submit their comments by July 8, 2021.
21 APRIL-MAY 2021