Kingdom Contributes to the Sixth World Telecommunication Development Conference's Adoption of Proposals Submitted by Arab Countries

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, represented by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and the Communications and Information Technology Commission, participated effectively in supporting the adoption of contributions submitted by Arab countries at the Sixth World Telecommunication Development Conference organized by the International Telecommunication Union (the UN specialized international agency for telecommunications and information technology), held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, during the period from 30 March to 10 April 2014.

The Kingdom and the group of Arab countries were able to reach a consensus formula that included implementing the proposals submitted by these countries on a number of issues, foremost among them Resolution No. 63 on the allocation of Internet protocol addresses and facilitating the transition to Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) in developing countries, and Resolution No. 45 on mechanisms for enhancing cooperation in the field of cybersecurity, including combating and addressing spam. In addition to the adoption of a new question in the Telecommunication Development Sector on the policy, regulatory and technical aspects of transitioning from existing networks to broadband networks in developing countries, including next-generation networks, mobile services, over-the-top (OTT) content services, and the implementation of Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6).

The Kingdom, represented by Eng. Abdulaziz bin Abdullah Al-Faiz from the Technical Affairs and Spectrum Sector at the Communications and Information Technology Commission, chaired the working group tasked with drafting the aforementioned Resolution 63, whose membership included the United States of America, the Russian Federation, the Regional Commonwealth in the field of Communications group, in addition to the group of Arab countries.

The Kingdom also contributed effectively to the organizational work of the conference by holding the position of Vice Chairman of the Steering Committee and Budget Control Committee at the conference, represented by Mr. Meshari bin Abdullah Al-Sa'b from the Competition and Legal Affairs Sector at the Commission, as this committee was concerned with determining the arrangements related to organizing the conference, as well as estimating the costs that would arise from implementing the conference's decisions.

At the conclusion of the conference, held this year under the theme “Broadband for Sustainable Development,” the World Telecommunication Development Conference adopted the Dubai Action Plan, thereby determining the telecommunications and information technology development work program for the next four years, in light of the focus on leveraging broadband as a catalyst for meeting the Sustainable Development Goals.

It should be noted that mobile telecommunications service penetration rates in the Kingdom are among the highest in the world according to the International Telecommunication Union's classification, reaching by the end of 2013 approximately 51 million subscriptions with a penetration rate of 170%, while broadband subscriptions in mobile and fixed services exceeded more than 17 million subscriptions.