State of 5G in Saudi Arabia: Expectations and current reality

5G not only offers important breakthroughs for Saudi Arabia’s most profitable industries, including gas and oil, logistics, and services, but has the potential to drive innovation through IoT-powered smart cities. The kingdom is an established 5G pioneer not only in the Gulf region, where it ranks closely to the UAE and Qatar, but globally, where it consistently ranks among the highest available speeds worldwide.

Average download speeds in Saudi Arabia have reached more than twice the global average at 322 Mbps, according to network-testing company Ookla. Saudi Arabia’s success can be attributed in no small part to its transformative policy of making all 1200MHz of the 6GHz band available for unlicensed Wi-Fi usage in the low- and mid-band ranges, freeing up the crowded 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands to enable businesses and individuals to deploy next-generation applications and services. As one of very few countries that have opened up the 6GHz frequency band, Saudi Arabia will benefit from not only faster connectivity, but the opportunity to accelerate the adoption and deployment of new technology as it emerges.

What is 5G?

5G’s ultra-fast speed, low latency, and higher capacity for connected devices are among its main advantages. It uses less power and is up to 20 times faster than 4G, and can handle huge volumes of data, which enables cloud and edge computing applications to process data exactly when and where it is needed. 5G enables network slicing — a technique that allows multiple virtual networks to run on top of shared infrastructure, so that they can be flexibly tailored to different groups’ specific needs. 5G offers real-time data exchange, which in conjunction with AI and machine learning can provide vital insights for critical systems management for so-called smart cities like the massive Neom project in Saudi Arabia.

5G coverage expands

Today, 5G coverage is available to 78% of the Saudi population, compared to 43% two years ago, according to GSMA Intelligence data. “This highlights solid progress while showing there is still more to be done to expand coverage, particularly in remote desert locations where the economics of network deployment are most challenging,” says GSMA Intelligence’s Director of Regional, Social and Policy Research Kenechi Okeleke. “In response to this, the country’s three largest mobile operators have recently launched a domestic roaming service in the Asir region, enabling users to connect to any available mobile network in the event of coverage gaps on their own provider’s network. There are plans to expand this service to further villages and settlements to improve user experience.”