Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH — The Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) announced Sunday the signing of a commercial agreement between Saudi Telecom Company (STC), Etihad Etisalat Company (Mobily) and Mobile Telecommunications Company Saudi Arabia (Zain) for the launch of the local roaming service.

The local roaming service aims to continue operating the service in all regions of the Kingdom, specifically in villages covered by telecommunications services.

The service enables users to change their service operator to another operator's service network if there is no coverage for their primary service operator.

The CITC has confirmed that the service is free and without any additional fees to the user, and it will be charged at the basic operator rate.

The authority added that the local roaming service includes all services such as (voice services, Internet services, short text messages “SMS”).

The implementation of the local roaming service will start in the Asir region, and then it will be completed in the rest of the Kingdom’s regions by the end of 2021 in 21,000 villages covered by telecommunications services.

The ceremony of launching the local roaming service was held at the authority’s headquarters in Riyadh, in presence of the CITC Gov. Dr. Mohammad Bin Saud Al-Tamimi and the chairmen of the boards of directors and CEOs of the three companies providing the service in the Kingdom (STC, Mobily, Zain).

The CITC governor said that the local roaming service comes within the framework of the authority’s cooperation with all concerned parties to provide the best telecommunications services.

“The local roaming service aims to enable service providers to benefit from the telecommunications networks of others and also to help them meet the requirements of the beneficiaries through it, as it supports the empowerment of digital transformation in the villages of the Kingdom,” he added.