Communications and Information Technology Commission provides wireless voice and internet services to (15,115) villages and hamlets by the end of 2015

The Communications and Information Technology Commission, represented by the Universal Service Fund, has completed the delivery of mobile voice communications services and internet services to (15,115) population clusters (villages and hamlets), inhabited by about (3,930,000) people, up until the end of December 2015. This achievement comes as a result of the generous support provided by the government of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques - may God protect him - in order to provide communications and information technology services to all population clusters spread throughout the Kingdom. Despite the Kingdom's vast geographical area, which represents a major 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 (fixed or 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, targeting commercially unviable clusters that lack the required communications services. The Fund also 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 said 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.