Riyadh – Mubasher: The Saudi Mobile Telecommunications Company (Zain) on Thursday paid SAR 253.8 million as the first tranche of its operating cash inflows to acquire additional spectrum.
The payment represents 30% of the total amount which is SAR 844 million.
The telecommunications provider will pay the rest of the amount as annual tranches of 7% over ten years, according to a statement on Thursday to the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul).
The new spectrum will raise Zain’s Long-Term Evolution (LTE) network capacity by 50% to allow customers to increase their downloading speed by as much as 80%, Zain revealed.
It further noted that the new spectrum will reduce network congestion without the need to change the company’s existing infrastructure.
The service quality will improve without a need to change any settings for wireless phones, tablets, or routers, Zain added.
The financial impact of the transaction will appear starting from 1 January 2018.
The stock rose 1.03%, closing at SAR 8.86 on Thursday.
