During his participation in the 10th Saudi Smart Grid Conference, His Excellency Al-Tamimi: We have worked to prepare an infrastructure enabling the connection of more than 500 million IoT devices across the Kingdom
His Excellency the Governor of the Communications, Space and Technology Commission, Dr. Mohammed bin Saud Al-Tamimi, explained that the Commission has worked to stimulate investment and enhance positive competitiveness in the information technology and emerging technologies market, through a solid infrastructure that has contributed to covering more than 3.6 million homes in the Kingdom with fiber optics, with the penetration rate exceeding 60% of homes, and the number of fixed high-speed internet subscriptions rising to more than 2.3 million subscriptions by the end of the third quarter of this year. This came during his participation in the 10th Saudi Smart Grid Conference, affirming that broadband coverage reached 99% of populated areas in the Kingdom, with an average speed exceeding 369 Mbps, noting the rise in mobile communications services penetration rate to 168% by the end of the third quarter of 2022, with a growth rate exceeding 20% compared to the same period last year. In his participation, His Excellency addressed the efforts made by the Commission in digital infrastructure supporting emerging technology applications such as smart grids, through the deployment of the NB-IoT network in the Kingdom via more than 20,000 towers supporting this technology with coverage exceeding 95% of urban areas, enabling the connection of more than 500 million IoT devices across the Kingdom, which contributed to increasing machine-to-machine (M2M) subscriptions via mobile communications networks to more than 11 million subscriptions, a growth rate of more than 720% compared to 2019, noting the Commission's integrative role with other government sectors and its importance in a number of various national projects, most notably its contribution to the smart electricity meter project, where this integrative work led to its success through the installation of more than 10 million smart meters, the largest project of its kind in the region.
He added that the Commission continues to provide more efforts to prepare the regulatory environment stimulating the adoption of emerging technologies, as the Information Technology and Emerging Technologies Strategy (BOOST) was launched in 2020 with ambitious targets to bridge key gaps identified based on extensive survey studies of both the supply and demand sides of the market, focusing on regulation, enablement, and awareness, to regulate and empower the sector by launching 16 regulatory initiatives, most notably the launch of the Emerging Technologies Regulatory Sandbox, which aims to enhance the positioning of innovative and promising business models based on emerging technologies such as the Internet of Things, blockchain, virtual and augmented reality, and cloud computing, alongside working on more than 33 enablement initiatives, such as the initiative to support the listing of local technology companies on the financial market, where a number of awareness workshops were held in partnership with Tadawul, contributing to the listing of 9 new information technology companies, a growth rate of up to 400% compared to last year, 2021, in addition to stimulating the cloud computing market, where the number of entities registered with the Commission to provide cloud computing services reached 31 entities, a threefold increase over last year, including 3 global hyperscaler companies. Al-Tamimi affirmed that the unlimited support for the sector from the wise leadership has resulted in the Kingdom's progress in many indicators, as it is among the most advanced countries in digital regulation at the Middle East and North Africa level, ranking sixth globally by the International Telecommunication Union for regulatory excellence, and is also among the top 10 countries in the world in mobile internet speed by the end of the third quarter of 2022, and in the use of Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6).
He added that the Commission continues to provide more efforts to prepare the regulatory environment stimulating the adoption of emerging technologies, as the Information Technology and Emerging Technologies Strategy (BOOST) was launched in 2020 with ambitious targets to bridge key gaps identified based on extensive survey studies of both the supply and demand sides of the market, focusing on regulation, enablement, and awareness, to regulate and empower the sector by launching 16 regulatory initiatives, most notably the launch of the Emerging Technologies Regulatory Sandbox, which aims to enhance the positioning of innovative and promising business models based on emerging technologies such as the Internet of Things, blockchain, virtual and augmented reality, and cloud computing, alongside working on more than 33 enablement initiatives, such as the initiative to support the listing of local technology companies on the financial market, where a number of awareness workshops were held in partnership with Tadawul, contributing to the listing of 9 new information technology companies, a growth rate of up to 400% compared to last year, 2021, in addition to stimulating the cloud computing market, where the number of entities registered with the Commission to provide cloud computing services reached 31 entities, a threefold increase over last year, including 3 global hyperscaler companies. Al-Tamimi affirmed that the unlimited support for the sector from the wise leadership has resulted in the Kingdom's progress in many indicators, as it is among the most advanced countries in digital regulation at the Middle East and North Africa level, ranking sixth globally by the International Telecommunication Union for regulatory excellence, and is also among the top 10 countries in the world in mobile internet speed by the end of the third quarter of 2022, and in the use of Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6).
Date
13/12/2022
Hijri Date
19/05/1444
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