Day: May 19, 2021

Riyadh, The efforts of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in reallocating the frequency spectrum and stimulating investments in the radio infrastructure with a total of SAR 40 billion over the past three years have contributed to classifying the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia among the top 10 countries in the world in terms of the Internet speed on mobile networks and second among G20 countries in providing frequency spectrum to offer mobile telecommunication services.

Years ago, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia ranked late among countries in terms of Internet speed and was also late internationally in the level of performance quality in this vital and essential service in the present time, the last of these years was 2017 when the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia ranked 105th globally with a rate that does not exceed 7 megabits per second, which does not accord with the regional and international value and roles of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Since then, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has sought to employ all its potential to change the situation, especially with the increasing pivotal roles of the Internet and its attachment to the modern daily life of all societies, forming the first precursors of a new universal revolution that was later termed the fourth industrial revolution.

To keep pace with this universal movement, His Royal Highness Crown Prince launched the Saudi Vision 2030, from which several visions and initiatives have emanated with the aim of supporting the digital transformation process at all levels, preparing a strong and distinguished digital infrastructure that helps empowering this process, and supporting the public and private sectors to match their operational systems with the digital transformation plans.

In conjunction with these efforts, the Communications and Information Technology Commission has launched an initiative to reallocate the frequency spectrum, which is one of the limited natural resources owned by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and is used in industries of modern radio technologies, mainly in radio communications, in addition to surveillance, control, sensors and radio systems, among others.

To achieve this goal, the Commission coordinated with public and private authorities, with the support of the National Transformation Program, to provide more than 800 megahertz of frequency spectrum of outdated usages and reallocate them to be available for commercial use by mobile communication service providers to increase capacities of radio networks and improve the quality of services.

The Commission, during the period between 2017 and 2019, held four public auctions for frequency spectrum, that resulted in increasing the frequencies allocated for mobile communication networks from 260 megahertz to 1,110 megahertz, which resulted in increasing the average of Internet download speed over mobile networks to more than tenfold (from 7 megabits per second in mid-2017 to more than 97 megabits per second by the end of 2020), where the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has become among the top 10 countries in terms of Internet speed on mobile networks and second among G20 countries in terms of providing frequency spectrum to offer mobile communication services.

Reallocating frequency spectrum for mobile services in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has contributed to stimulating investments in the radio infrastructure by up to SAR 40 billion over the past three years, through which non-oil revenues of public auctions that the Commission has held SAR 10 billion.

Due to the importance of this limited resource and efforts to increase its national utilization, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is planning to publish a roadmap for an innovative and commercial use of the frequency spectrum (2021-2023). This roadmap includes providing more than 22 gigahertz for innovative and smart radio usages for the frequency spectrum with the aim of supporting the adoption of 5G technologies of mobile communication and 6G of Wi-Fi, high-speed wireless networks, broadband satellite systems, the Internet of Things and the artificial intelligence and what it offers of smart services and options that can be utilized in applications for houses, smart gauges, connected vehicles and fleet management (vehicles and robots) among other applications. It also aims to provide multiple frequency ranges for the purpose of experimenting and developing emerging and advanced radio systems and technologies, such as high-altitude platforms and smart wireless transport systems, as well as providing sufficient frequency ranges to enhance the digital radio transmission in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, through this initiative that aims at providing and allocating this unprecedented volume of frequencies for innovative and commercial usages, seeks to create a regional and international trend to allow multiple radio technologies that use limited frequency ranges and enable sharing its usage, which allows the best use of this limited resource in light of the immense multiplication in the number of applications, systems and various radio usages and the huge acceleration in developing them until their use becomes a necessity in all fields of the daily life.

This progressive trend, adopted by the Commission in administrating this critical resource, enables speeding up procedures to embrace several radio technologies for various purposes and usages in various sectors and industries in a way that contributes to establishing a developed digital infrastructure necessary to move the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia towards the future digital community in accordance with the Saudi Vision 2030.

This initiative will include a plan to provide several frequency ranges through public auctions in 2021 and 2022, where the Commission, through these auctions, will provide several frequency ranges with high economic value that will improve the level of services offered to the public and put the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia at the top of countries that allocate 5G frequency spectrum

Source: Saudi Press Agency

Cairo, Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit deplored the statements of the Lebanese Foreign Minister in the caretaker government Charbel Wehbe during a television interview, which included an encroachment on the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states in general and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in particular, describing these statements as far from diplomatic norms.

In a statement issued today, Aboul Gheit stressed that the dialogue language used by senior officials in Arab countries should always reflect the brotherly feelings and mutual respect among Arab peoples and should avoid whatever that might agitate feelings, instigate hate or fuel sedition.

The Secretary General also expressed concern over these statements that are made at a sensitive time that Lebanon is going through, during which Beirut needs all forms of support from brotherly and friendly countries, noting that these phrases have also contributed to tensions in Lebanese-GCC relations instead of rectifying their course as envisioned.

Source: Saudi Press Agency

Riyadh, The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, represented by the National Measurement and Calibration Center at the Saudi Standards, Metrology and Quality Organization (SASO), is scheduled on Tuesday May 25, 2021 to organize the International Metrology Forum under the motto “Measuring for Health”, in conjunction with celebrations of the World Metrology Day, under the auspices of Minister of Commerce and SASO Chairman Dr. Majid bin Abdullah Al-Qasabi.

The event will see the participation of the Director of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures Dr. Martin Milton, Director of the International Organization of Legal Metrology Anthony Donnellan and Graham Machin of the UK National Metrology Institute, as well as the Assistant of the Minister of Health in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Dr. Muhammad Al-Abdulali, Vice President of the Medical Devices Sector at the Saudi Food and Drug Authority Eng. Ali Al-Dalaan and Director of the National Measurement and Calibration Center Dr. Ismail Al-Falih.

The forum, in a panel discussion titled “Measuring for Health”, will discuss local and international experiences in facing the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the role of national laboratories and metrology centers during the pandemic, as well as the accuracy of metrology and its effects in the health sector, in addition to the role of the scientific research in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.

The event also will include two workshops on the impact of metrology in the health sector and its role in the empowerment of the industrial growth.

SASO Governor Dr. Saad bin Othman Al-Kassabi stressed that the importance of this forum emanates from the negative repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic that affected all walks of life at the health, economic and social levels, noting that metrology plays a main role in enhancing national and international capabilities in all economic and scientific fields and supporting health and metrology research papers aimed at alleviating the impact and spread of the coronavirus, so as to guarantee the use of metrology devices with high accuracy and credibility.

Source: Saudi Press Agency

Riyadh, The National Commission for Education, Culture and Science is set to virtually organize here tomorrow “ALECSO in Saudi Arabia”, an event designed to enhance the joint cooperation between ALECSO and national institutions to reach launch of new initiatives at the national and regional levels.

The organizer has also affirmed its keenness to enhance cooperation among regional and international organizations, governmental and non-governmental institutions as well as non-profit institutions in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The event will be held with the participation of a number of government institutions in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, private and non-profit institutions related to the fields of education, culture and science.

Source: Saudi Press Agency

Damascus, Monetary and Credit Board has made a decision to allow people coming to Syria to bring in with them Foreign banknotes up to an amount of USD 500,000 or their equivalent in other foreign currencies, under the condition to properly declare it in accordance with to the patterns adopted by Anti-money Laundering and Anti-terrorism Financing Commission.

This decision cancels a previous decision taken by the Board in 2015 that allows the people coming to Syria to being in a sum of USD 1000 or their equivalent in other foreign currencies.

Source: Syrian Arab News Agency

Moscow, Member of the State Duma, Coordinator of the Russian Parliamentary Group for the Relations with People’s Assemble, Dmitry Sablin, stressed that the presidential elections in Syria are significant as they come after victory over terrorist groups.

Speaking to SANA correspondent in Moscow, Sablin asserted that “the elections are so important for the whole country after years of war and this is what distinguishes them”, voicing his confidence that all Syrians would come to ballot boxes and cast their votes for their country.

He pointed out that Russia will send a delegation consisting of representatives of parliamentary, governmental and social institutions to keep up with the elections and carry its duties out transparently.

In another context, Sablin indicated to the hard circumstances the Syrians have been living in areas controlled by US and Turkish occupation forces, clarifying that all occupiers use all means to exert pressure on the Syrian people including terrorist tools and unjust economic sanctions.

Source: Syrian Arab News Agency

Tehran, Iranian Defense Minister, General Amir Hatami, reiterated that his country stands by Syria and supports the unity and sovereignty of its territories, noting that Tehran is ready to participate in its reconstruction process.

Hatami, meeting the Syrian economic delegation, pointed out to the strategic role of Syria in the resistance axis.

“Iran stands by the Syrian government and people to preserve its territorial integrity, and it is ready to participate in the reconstruction process,” Hatami added.

Source: Syrian Arab News Agency