With Attendance of Experts from Global Entities: Communications Commission Discusses Mechanisms for Enabling Commercial and Innovative Uses of the Frequency Spectrum in the Kingdom

The Communications and Information Technology Commission held, today, Thursday, a virtual workshop on enabling commercial and innovative uses of the frequency spectrum in the Kingdom, attended by a number of relevant entities from the public and private sectors; in an effort to enhance the commercial and innovative use of the frequency spectrum and enable emerging radio technologies, and to boost investment in commercial and innovative uses by providing frequency spectrum for these uses, and ensuring a competitive and transparent regulatory environment in the telecommunications and information technology market in the Kingdom.

During the workshop, an introductory presentation on the National Frequency Spectrum Strategy and the Commission's plans to enable commercial and innovative uses of the frequency spectrum in the Kingdom was given, before His Excellency the Deputy Governor of the Communications and Information Technology Commission for the Frequency Spectrum Sector, Dr. Mohammed Al-Otaibi, began reviewing future directions for enabling commercial and innovative uses of the frequency spectrum in the Kingdom, noting that the National Frequency Spectrum Strategy keeps pace with rapid technological changes, and seeks to meet current and future commercial and innovative uses across all sectors, as work will be carried out through this strategy to provide the latest technologies, including supporting 5G applications, enabling various use cases for these technologies, and enabling emerging radio applications and Internet of Things uses by providing access to licensed frequency spectrum, in addition to license-exempt uses.

The workshop also included a dialogue discussion session on the needs of radio technologies and the sector using the frequency spectrum, moderated by His Excellency the Chief Technology Advisor at the Communications and Information Technology Commission, Dr. Ahmed Al-Suhaili, with the participation of: Mr. Richard Womersley, Director of Spectrum Services at (LS Telecom), whose remarks focused on the latest critical communications network technologies; Dr. Guillaume Lebrun, Head of Spectrum Policy Affairs for Europe at (Facebook), who addressed in his remarks emerging wireless communication technologies being developed with Facebook's contribution, while highlighting High-Altitude Platform Station (HAPS) systems and their frequency spectrum needs; Mr. Osamu Kamimura, Vice President for Spectrum Policy Affairs in the Mobile Communications Unit at (SoftBank); followed by remarks from Mr. Hans Martin, Assistant Director of Spectrum Management at (NERA Consulting), on the frequency spectrum needs of various sectors for 5G technology; before the discussion session's remarks concluded with a paper by Mr. Graham MacDonald, Spectrum Policy Expert at (Apple) and Regulatory Chair for the Europe, Middle East and Africa region at the (Wi-Fi Alliance), who presented a forward-looking outlook on the future of Wi-Fi networks.

The Communications Commission had previously issued a public consultation request on “Enabling Commercial and Innovative Uses in the Kingdom,” to assess the needs of all sectors in the Kingdom for frequency spectrum for commercial and innovative applications, and determine the best ways to manage the bands designated for these uses, in a way that enhances the Kingdom's standing and leadership in adopting wireless technologies. The Commission also seeks to maintain the Kingdom's leadership in frequency allocations within International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT-2020) systems, by providing more than 10 GHz of spectrum for emerging and innovative uses by 2024.