CITC Announces the Launch of the Domestic Roaming Service

The Communications and Information Technology Commission announced the launch of the domestic roaming service, which mainly aims to ensure service continuity in villages and hamlets covered by telecom services across all regions of the Kingdom, and enables users to switch their network to another service provider in the event that their primary service provider's coverage is unavailable, without any additional charges to the user.

During the service launch ceremony held at the Commission's headquarters in Riyadh, attended by His Excellency Dr. Mohammed bin Saud Al-Tamimi, Governor of the Communications and Information Technology Commission, and the chairmen of the boards and CEOs of the three companies providing the service in the Kingdom, commercial agreements were signed between Saudi Telecom Company (STC), Etihad Etisalat Company (Mobily), and Saudi Telecom Mobile Company (Zain).

The Commission explained that domestic roaming covers all services, including voice services, internet services, and short text messages (SMS), across 21,000 villages and hamlets in the Kingdom covered by telecom services, without incurring any additional costs, as services will be charged at the base operator's rate.

The Commission revealed that the implementation of the domestic roaming service would begin in the Asir region and be completed in the rest of the Kingdom's regions by the end of 2021.

His Excellency Dr. Mohammed bin Saud Al-Tamimi, Governor of the Communications and Information Technology Commission, noted that the "domestic roaming" service comes as part of the Commission's work with all concerned parties to provide the best telecom services, pointing out that the service aims to enable service providers to benefit from other service providers' telecom networks to meet beneficiaries' requirements through them, and to support service providers' reach to the largest possible number of users, thereby ensuring an increase in the number of available options, raising the level of competition, improving service quality, and enhancing the beneficiary experience on the one hand, and supporting the enablement of digital transformation in the Kingdom's villages and hamlets and achieving its objectives and disseminating its services on the other.