CITC Announces the Award of the First High-Speed Wireless Broadband Project for Remote Areas

The Communications and Information Technology Commission today announced the approval of the Commission's Board of Directors to award the first high-speed wireless broadband project for remote areas of the Kingdom to Saudi Telecom Mobile Company (Zain), following the project's tender among companies qualified to provide telecom services.

His Excellency Dr. Abdulaziz bin Salem Al-Ruwais, Governor of the Communications and Information Technology Commission, explained that this project includes providing high-speed broadband services to remote centers, villages, and hamlets across various regions of the Kingdom by stimulating investment in infrastructure and increasing wireless broadband network coverage to 70% of housing units in remote areas by the end of 2020, adding that this project targets providing service to more than 140,000 citizens and residents in (centers, villages, and hamlets) belonging to (13) governorates, including (Al-Majma'ah and Rumah) in Riyadh region, (Khafji, Hafr Al-Batin, and Qaryat Al-Ulya) in the Eastern Province, as well as (Al-Qurayyat, Dumat Al-Jandal, Sakaka, and Tabarjal) in Al-Jouf region, in addition to (Al-Uwayqilah, Rafha, Turaif, and Ar'ar) in the Northern Borders region, noting that this project is the first phase of the plan to expand broadband service deployment across the Kingdom.

It is worth noting that the Communications and Information Technology Commission has managed to bring telecom and information technology services to commercially unprofitable remote centers, villages, and hamlets through Universal Service Fund projects aimed at providing voice services and internet services to remote areas, with the total number of population clusters served exceeding more than (17 thousand) population clusters inhabited by more than 4 million people by the end of 2016.