Communications and Information Technology Commission provides its services to 17,342 villages and hamlets by the end of the first quarter of 2016

The Communications and Information Technology Commission, represented by the Universal Service Fund, has completed the delivery of mobile voice and internet communications services to 17,342 population clusters in the villages and hamlets of the Kingdom, up until the end of the first quarter of 2016.

This achievement comes as a result of the generous support provided by the government of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud - may God protect him - in providing communications and information technology services to all population clusters spread throughout the Kingdom. Despite the Kingdom's vast geographical area, which represents a challenge in this regard, the Communications and Information Technology Commission's opportunities to spread these services have doubled after the establishment of a Universal Service Fund, which aims to deliver communications services (mobile voice service and internet service) inside the buildings of the targeted population clusters (centers, villages, and hamlets), whose population ranges between 100 to 5,000 people.

The services also target commercially unviable clusters that lack the required communications services, while the Fund provides what is known as the "universal access obligation," which is providing communications services with the required quality outside the buildings of the targeted population clusters with a population of less than 100 people, so that they can be reached within a distance not exceeding 10 km.

The Commission stated that the commitment of the Fund's service providers towards population clusters in the targeted governorates does not end once the project implementation is complete, as the Fund's service agreement lasts for two Gregorian years, during which the project is implemented, services are provided to the targeted population clusters, the quality and availability of the provided services are monitored, and any complaints received by the Commission regarding these clusters are addressed. The service of the population clusters in the targeted governorates then becomes part of the service provider's obligations.