Saudi Arabia to Offer New Cellular Licenses

Saudi Arabia is to license at least one new cellular license to continue the planned liberalisation of the local telecoms market. The Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) is inviting comments from interested parties on the procedure to be used and the conditions to be applied in the licensing of cellular mobile service providers in the Kingdom. A Public Consultation Document is being released at the same time to provide background information on the proposed licensing procedure and conditions, and to invite comments on issues related to the licensing process.

A timetable for the submission of comments and other steps in the consultation process is set out in the Public Consultation Document.

Following the Public Consultation Process the licensing award process is intended to have a Pre-Qualification Phase to pre-qualify candidates to be included in a short-list and entitled to submit an application for a cellular mobile services license followed by an Application Phase and a Selection Phase to evaluate the pre-qualified applicants.

The CITC will provide further details regarding the licensing process shortly following the conclusion of the Public Consultation at which time the request for the pre-qualification ("RFPQ") package will be made available on the CITC web site. The RFPQ fee, for those intending to file a response to the RFPQ, will be specified in the RFPQ package.

The schedule and deadlines for filing questions and comments related to the licensing of new cellular mobile service providers are set out at the end of the Public Consultation Document."

Posted to the site on 1st December 2003