Announcement of the Signing of the Universal Service Fund's Exploratory Project Agreement at the Communications and Information Technology Commission

The Universal Service Fund at the Communications and Information Technology Commission revealed today that Etihad Etisalat Company (Mobily) won the implementation of the Fund's exploratory project, which aims to provide voice communications and broadband internet services in the governorates of Khulais and Al-Kamil in the Makkah region, and the governorate of Al-Mahd in the Madinah region, after the company passed all the required evaluation elements, and for submitting the lowest bid for the financial support required to implement this project, valued at (50,000,000) fifty million riyals.

The agreement for the exploratory project was signed by His Excellency the Governor of the Communications and Information Technology Commission, Chairman of the Fund's Executive Committee, Dr. Abdulrahman bin Ahmed Al-Jaafari, and His Excellency the CEO and Managing Director, Eng. Khalid bin Omar Al-Kaf.

His Excellency the Governor and Chairman of the Fund's Executive Committee, Dr. Abdulrahman bin Ahmed Al-Jaafari, said that we are working within the directives of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques regarding the pursuit of comprehensive development in all regions of the Kingdom, and in line with the long-term strategy for the national economy, which seeks to make the economy developed and prosperous, by achieving comprehensive, sustainable, and balanced development, and reducing developmental gaps between the regions of the Kingdom, as well as achieving the general objectives of the Ninth Development Plan (1431/1432H - 1435/1436H), and the importance of the Universal Service Fund in achieving many of them.

His Excellency the Director General of the Universal Service Fund, Eng. Fahd bin Abdulaziz Al-Mubarak, explained that the Fund had evaluated and analyzed the competing bids for this project, submitted by the Saudi Telecom Group, Etihad Etisalat Company (Mobily), and the Saudi Mobile Telecommunications Company (Zain), according to the evaluation criteria and methodology set out in the request for proposals document for the Fund's exploratory project. It became clear from this that all applicant companies technically qualified, which qualified them for the public session for opening the financial bids, which showed that Etihad Etisalat Company (Mobily) submitted the lowest bid for financial support among the companies competing for this project. An evaluation of the financial bids of all applicants was also conducted, and then all evaluation results were presented to the Fund's Executive Committee (a committee emanating from the Board of Directors of the Communications and Information Technology Commission), which decided that Etihad Etisalat Company (Mobily) won the Fund's exploratory project to cover the three aforementioned governorates.

It is worth noting that the Fund had floated the request for proposals document for the first annual operational plan project (1431/1432H, corresponding to 2010) on Tuesday 17/07/1431H, corresponding to 29/06/2010, aiming to provide voice communications services and broadband internet services in the targeted unserved population clusters in the following governorates:

1. All governorates of the Al-Jouf region (Al-Qurayyat, Dawmat Al-Jandal, and Sakaka).

2. All governorates of the Northern Borders region (Ar'ar, Rafha, and Turaif).

3. The governorates of Al-Dayer, Al-Rayth, and Al-Darb in the Jazan region.