Mubasher: Zain Saudi Arabia received a 15 Hijri year extension on its operating license to be expired in January 2047, following a notification from the Kingdom’s Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC), according to a statement.
The telecom operator was originally granted in March 2008 for 25 Hijri years.
CITC will also allow Zain Saudi Arabia to obtain a unified telecommunication license that supports both service-neutrality and technology neutrality. The commission also allowed other Saudi-licensed telecom operators to get the same license.
A condition of the license extension is that the Saudi government will have an entitlement of 5% of Zain Saudi Arabia’s annual net income throughout the 15-year period.
The overall financial impact of the extension is expected to benefit Zain KSA’s annual amortization by around SAR 433 million ($115 million) annually.
“The unified license will now enable fair competition in the mobile and fixed telecommunications services as it will allow operators to deploy fit-for-purpose and efficient technologies to meet market demand,” according to Bader Al Kharafi, Zain Group Vice-Chairman and Zain Saudi Arabia Vice-Chairman.
