As Part of the Sixth Asia-Pacific Spectrum Management Conference, Kingdom Showcases Its Experience and Success in Providing Frequency Bands Enabling 5G Technologies

The Kingdom, represented by the Communications and Information Technology Commission, participated in the sixth Asia-Pacific Spectrum Management Conference, held virtually during the period 3-6 of this August.

The conference highlighted the Kingdom's pioneering experience in refarming the 2.3 and 2.6 GHz frequency bands, and its success in providing very wide frequency bands to mobile telecommunications service providers in the Kingdom, enabling them to use them for fourth- and fifth-generation broadband mobile telecommunications technologies. The Kingdom's direction in providing and releasing more than 10 GHz to meet digital needs, and creating an environment conducive to deploying emerging radio technologies and innovative wireless applications, was also reviewed.

The conference reviewed the most notable developments and challenges in frequency spectrum management in the countries of Asia and the Pacific region, as telecommunications sector regulators and operators in this region are moving to provide frequencies for fourth- and fifth-generation services in the 2.3 and 2.6 GHz frequency bands, and discussing many technical aspects and regulatory and legal challenges related to those frequencies.

It should be noted that the Kingdom, represented by the Communications and Information Technology Commission, highlighted last June 2020 its pioneering experience in refarming the bands designated for mobile services to European countries, during the European Spectrum Management Conference, as it is among the first G20 countries in frequency spectrum allocation, and for the successes it achieved in implementing the National Frequency Spectrum Plan; in support of expanding the provision of the new generation of telecommunications and information technology services, and supporting digital transformation by increasing frequency spectrum allocations, and developing integrated plans, to determine priorities for clearing frequency bands, and refarming and reallocating them, in a manner that contributes to improving the quality and speed of mobile internet services in the Kingdom, and this initiative contributed to improving internet speeds by more than 6-fold, placing the Kingdom in tenth place globally according to the global Speedtest report.