Zain acquires SAR 844m additional spectrum

Riyadh – Mubasher: Mobile Telecommunication Company Saudi Arabia (Zain) on Wednesday announced the acquisition of 10MHz out of 1800MHz spectrum at a total cost of SAR 844 million, according to a bourse filing.
This first annual payment, representing 30% of the total value and amounting to SAR 253 million will be paid in 2017, while the remaining 7% annual payments will be paid over the coming 10 years. 
“The spectrum is a very valuable asset for the mobile network operators as customers demand high speed data services in the Kingdom, additional spectrum enables telecom operators to improve network capacity and deliver faster and more reliably throughput, thus enriching the customer experience,” according to the company’s statement.
It is expected that the new spectrum will boost Zain’s LTE network capacity by 50%, leading to an average increase of 80% in downloading and improving the network congestion, without having to make major changes in the existing infrastructure.
Zain said that this new addition to its spectrum will have a positive impact on the company’s overall performance.