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Saudi CITC Launches Free Local Roaming Service

The Saudi CITC launches the free local roaming service. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
The Saudi CITC launches the free local roaming service. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Saudi CITC Launches Free Local Roaming Service

The Saudi CITC launches the free local roaming service. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
The Saudi CITC launches the free local roaming service. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

The Saudi Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) launched Sunday the local roaming service to ensure operating services in all regions in the Kingdom.

The service enables users to change their operator to another service network if there is no coverage for their primary service operator.

The launch was held at the authority's headquarters in Riyadh, in the presence of CITC Gov. Mohammed al-Tamimi and the chairmen of the boards of directors and CEOs of the three companies providing the service in the Kingdom.

The ceremony included the signing of an agreement between the Saudi Telecom Company (STC), Etihad Etisalat Company (Mobily), and Mobile Telecommunications Company Saudi Arabia (Zain).

The authority said local roaming covers all services, such as voice and Internet services and short text messages (SMS), and will be implemented in all regions, including in 21,000 villages, covered by the telecommunications services.

The implementation of the local roaming service will start in the al-Asir region and will be completed in all other regions by the end of 2021.

Al-Tamimi said local roaming is part of the authority's cooperation with all concerned parties to provide the best telecommunications services.

"The local roaming service aims to enable service providers to benefit from the telecommunications networks of others and also to help them meet the requirements of the beneficiaries, as it supports the empowerment of digital transformation in the Kingdom," he added.

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Trump to Take Virtual Center Stage in Davos

Davos will finally hear from the man himself during a live video appearance, with CEOs given the chance to lob questions at Donald Trump. FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP
Davos will finally hear from the man himself during a live video appearance, with CEOs given the chance to lob questions at Donald Trump. FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP
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Trump to Take Virtual Center Stage in Davos

Davos will finally hear from the man himself during a live video appearance, with CEOs given the chance to lob questions at Donald Trump. FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP
Davos will finally hear from the man himself during a live video appearance, with CEOs given the chance to lob questions at Donald Trump. FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP

Donald Trump on Thursday will star in an eagerly-anticipated online appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, addressing global elites whose annual gabfest has been consumed by the US president's days-old second term.
Trump's name has come up in almost every conversation in the Swiss Alpine village this week: in formal panel discussions, in shuttles ferrying people up and down the mountain, and in exclusive parties along the promenade.
"Trump is a provocateur. He enjoys being a provocateur, and many people at Davos are bored in their life. He's not boring. So, you know, it's kind of exciting," Harvard scholar and WEF regular Graham Allison told AFP.
Davos will finally hear from the man himself during a live video appearance, with CEOs given the chance to lob questions at Trump, himself a businessman who made his fortune in real estate.
He already gave Davos a taste of what is to come since his inauguration on Monday, which coincided with the WEF's first day: tariff threats against Mexico and Canada, the US withdrawal from the Paris climate pact, a threat to take the Panama Canal, just to name a few.
His plans to cut taxes, reduce the size of the federal government and deregulate industries will find a sympathetic ear amongst many businesses.
"Trump has been running America like America Inc. He's been very focused on getting the best advantage for the US in any way that he can," Julie Teigland, a managing partner at EY consulting firm, told AFP.
"He knows that he needs trade partners to do that. He does. And so I expect him to give messages along these lines," she said.
'No winners'
His trade partners had a chance to react in Davos earlier this week.
Without invoking Trump's name, Chinese Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang warned that "there are no winners in a trade war".
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz vowed to defend free trade but he took a conciliatory tone, saying that he had good earlier discussions with Trump.
European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen said that Brussels was ready to negotiate with Trump, but she also underscored the bloc's diverging policy with him on climate, saying it would stick by the Paris accord.
Panama's President Jose Raul Mulino dismissed Trump's claims to the Panama Canal, which was built by the United States but handed to the Central American country in 1999 under two-decade old treaties.
Mulino said he was "not worried" and that Panama would not be "distracted by this type of statement".
'Celebrate Trump'
The Republican president also has fans in Davos.
One of his biggest cheerleaders on the world stage, Argentina's libertarian President Javier Milei, will make a speech to the WEF on Thursday, hours before Trump.
"The world should celebrate the arrival of President Trump," Milei said at a Bloomberg event on Wednesday.
"The golden era he proposes for the United States will shine a light for the whole world as it will spell the end of the woke ideology, which is doing so much harm to the planet," Milei said.
One of his backers in the business world, Marc Benioff, the chief executive of US tech firm Salesfoce, was also enthusiastic at the same Bloomberg chat.
"I'm very positive," he said. "I'm just looking forward to seeing what's going to happen. And it's a new day and, it's an exciting moment."