Accelerating Vision 2030 – How New Released Spectrum is Accelerating the Kingdom’s Digital Transformation and Digital Enablement Leadership Position

From being among the frontrunners of 5G race globally to a world leader in 5G network speed. Saudi Arabia digital transformation journey is being taken to a whole new different level that paves the way to a digital society. By 2025 the number of internet users in Kingdom will hit 36.2 million users, figure below, which tremendously congest existing bandwidth. According to the CITC’s spectrum vision report, released ealier this month, regional mobile data consumption continues to grow rapidly at a rate of 30% to 50% annually; and may grow quicker as 5G adoption increases. Fixed broadband data consumption is also growing at around 30 percent each year and will likely get bigger due to Covide19 pandemic life adoption from heavier remote working, to on-demand streaming, and video conferencing. 

Consequently, and coupled with the ambition and aspiration of Vision 2030 digital transformation, CITC responded this month by releasing new spectrum for licensed-exempt spectrum primarily aimed for Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E networks. They also released the national spectrum future direction outlook which include the release of various licensed spectrum over the next three years. The convergence and cooperation of new Wi-Fi spectrum and the extreme speed of 5G will be the enabler of numerous IR4.0 applications and use cases. They the first in the region to announce such initiative and it is clear that they are determined to realize the digital transformation initiatives in line with Vision 2030 programs.

CITC is Planning to startup a Spectrum Innovation Center

Licensed-Exempted Spectrum

CITC planning to release 6GHz spectrum for unlicensed use, primarily Wi-Fi 6E use cases. The importance of 6 GHz band is represented in the emptiness of that band and the dedication of usage to WiFi 6E use cases. The speed of 6GHz is unlike the congested 5GHz and 2.4GHz, that already using millions of connected devices, but far higher speed, less latency, and more reliability. No doubt that 6GHz band offer higher capacity but in the cost of coverage, thus the primary use cases of this band will be for capacity, i.e. stadiums, congested malls, festival avenues, etc. And since this band is empty it means connected devices can take full advantage of the entire available bandwidth with no bandwidth competition from other technologies. With connected devices expected to reach 22.2 billion devices by end of 2021, this step in timely vital to balance out spectrum congestion with minimum compromise of reliability and speed. This massive spectrum together with 2.4GHz and 5GHz will be vital enabler of numerous IR4.0 applications for both capacity and penetration needs.  

IR4.0 is reality now, from AR and VR to IoT and IIoT applications there are room for every use case after this new spectrum allocation. Moreover, the need for ultra-high speed and ultra-low latency fiber like connectivity is increasingly demanded to cope with rapid connectivity demands increase. Thus, CITC is planning to release 66-71 GHz bands for license-exempt wireless technologies such as Telegraph. Telegraph is promising to deliver fiber like speed and reliability and can be deployed with much lower cost than fiber since it can be deployed in streetlights poles and wall mounts or rooftops.

Licensed Spectrum

For telecom operators, CITC is planning lead in the region by offering more spectrum for licensed used primarily to help operators to adopt a rapid SA and NSA 5G role out strategy over the next two years. To balance data connectivity demands over unlicensed spectrum with the licensed spectrum for kingdom wide coverage and capacity, CITC plans to open 600 MHz and 450 MHz for operators in the second half of 2021. These two bands are vital for 5G penetration and primarily used for deep penetration and light usage. Because both bands are currently used by only terrestrial TV broadcasting, it is very clean for cellular 5G networks once allocated. Which provide clear band for only 5G coverage layer without any other cellular technology. This will enable operators to rapidly expand their 5G networks for extreme capacity on mid-bands and wider coverage on low bands. According to CITC spectrum vision report, it is expected that CITC will offer mmWave spectrum auction on 26 GHz and 28 GHz bands during H1 2022.

In total CITC is committed to release more than a massive 23 GHz spectrum. Fostering innovation for the digital society is one pillar of CITC vision that will enable telecom operators, VNOs and startups to innovate and realizing Vision 2030 transformation toward IR4.0 society and eventually contribute to the total GDP of Saudi Arabia.