CITC Announces the Availability of Unified License Issuance and License Extension for Telecom Companies

The Communications and Information Technology Commission announced the availability of extending the licenses issued to telecommunications and information technology companies licensed to operate in the Kingdom and issuing unified licenses to them, implementing the Royal Order No. (61534) dated 30/12/1437H; the Commission's Board of Directors, meeting today, Sunday 29/1/1438H, chaired by His Excellency the Minister of Communications and Information Technology, approved the executive plan for the extension and transition to unified licenses. The Board determined the eligibility for extension and obtaining the unified license for companies wishing to do so, having infrastructure and being listed on the Saudi capital market, namely: Saudi Telecom Company, Etihad Etisalat Company (Mobily), Saudi Telecom Mobile Company (Zain), and Etihad Atheeb Telecom Company (GO).

The Commission explained that the unified license allows the licensee to build networks and provide diverse services (mobile, fixed, voice, and data) through the technologies deemed appropriate by the licensee to suit its commercial and technical plan.

The Commission stated that its objective in issuing this type of license is to encourage service providers to raise the level of competition to serve users, and to increase the options for obtaining services that suit them, in addition to motivating service providers to raise network efficiency and reduce costs by enabling the provision of a number of services through a single unified license. Unified licenses also expand the scope of diverse service coverage across all regions of the Kingdom.