RIYADH - The Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) free local roaming service on its 5th phase, has included Makkah and Al-Baha regions. The Commission announced on Wednesday that it has launched the 5th phase of free local roaming service, as it will cover a total of 5,737 village of Makkah and Al-Baha regions. The 5th phase of free local roaming service aims to achieve 4,801 village in Makkah region, and 936 village in Al-Baha region. CITC confirmed its plan to cover all the Kingdom' regions with the local roaming service by the end of 2021, as it will facilitate the telecommunications companies to benefit from the other network providers. The service will also meet the needs of the network beneficiaries to reach to telecommunications providers, which will increase the available options and to raise the service quality, as well as it will enable the users to use any available network in case they could not reach to their own service provider, with a free of cost. The local roaming service will enhance and support the digital transformation empowerment in Saudi Arabia's villages. It is noteworthy that the service has been launched in August of 2021 by the CITC as it has signed a commercial agreement between Saudi Telecom Company (STC), Etihad Etisalat Company (Mobily) and Mobile Telecommunications Company Saudi Arabia (Zain), to initiate the local roaming service in all over Saudi Arabia. The service has already covered the most of saudi regions on its previous phases, which included: Assir, Riyadh, Qassim, the eastern region, the northern border, Al-Jowf, Madinah, Hail and Tabouk
