1. Connectivity and Coverage
Improving connectivity coverage and quality will help bridge the digital divide and meet the connectivity requirements of the current and emerging digital services. By promoting inclusivity and expanding connectivity and access, KSA will empower its citizens with the tools to thrive in a digital world driving innovation, socioeconomic progress, and prosperity.
As such, this pillar aims to achieve the following priorities:
• Work efficiently toward bridging the digital divide in KSA by ensuring access to digital services for all people, households, and establishments in the Kingdom.
• Provide full broadband coverage for the entire Kingdom’s population across all regions.
• Provide ultra high-speed broadband quality across the urban, dense-urban, in addition to key areas within the Kingdom.
• Ensure adequate national backbone capacity to cater for the increasing demand for bandwidth.
• Optimize digital infrastructure resources and investments by promoting ICT and non-ICT infrastructure sharing.
• Ensure effective and efficient spectrum management to promote the accessibility for innovative wireless technologies.
• Ensure the development and deployment of any advanced technologies that help to enhance the broadband services quality, availability, and affordability.
• Promote the use of sustainable practices and technologies to provide connectivity and contribute to SDGs (sustainable development goals).
2. Digital Hub
Digital transformation is one of the most important pillars of the Kingdom's Vision 2030, as it is critical to achieve economic growth and social prosperity. Given the high demand for cloud computing capabilities and data transfer, and s a result of this positive impact on the economy, the Kingdom seeks to become a leading regional digital hub leveraging its strategic location, as the hub linking three continents: Asia, Africa, and Europe.
In addition, KSA is focusing on enhancing international cooperation and attracting foreign investments, by building the necessary digital infrastructure, including advanced data centers that support high speeds
As such, this pillar aims to achieve the following priorities:
• Enhance KSA’s international connectivity by capitalizing on its strategic geographical location and make the Kingdom a focal point for regional and international communication.
• Position KSA as a regional computing powerhouse with adequate data center capacity strengthening the Kingdom’s digital leadership in the region.
• Provide high quality and low latency digital services to meet the requirements of end-users inside the Kingdom and out.
• Adopt sustainable practices in the design and operation of data centers and enhance sustainability of the economic environment.
3. Advanced Network Technologies
In an ever-evolving interconnected world, continuous innovation and development of advanced network technologies equipped with better performance, self-reliance, cost-effectiveness, security, and sustainability is essential, especially with the increasing demand for higher speeds, more computing power, and extra capacity.
As such, this pillar aims to achieve the following priorities:
• Capitalize on KSA’s existing strengths and position the Kingdom as a leader in the development and adoption of advanced network technologies by promoting research and development in advanced network technologies.
• Encourage ICT sector stakeholders in leveraging advanced network technologies to realize its benefits including but not limited to cost optimization, service agility and new revenue streams.
• Forge strategic partnership and collaboration with the private sector to drive innovation in the field of network technologies, by providing support for companies operating in the field of advanced network technologies.
• Forge strategic partnership and collaboration with leading countries, industry leaders, research centers, and facilitate knowledge sharing to drive innovation in the field of network technologies.
• Enable the development and adoption of sustainable network technologies, set standards and incentives that encourage the adoption of this type of sustainable technologies and support innovation in their development.
• Promote the establishment of research and development centers for advanced network technologies and support its collaboration with international players.
4. Healthy Digital Infrastructure market
Digital infrastructure is one of the most asset intensive investments, which is why it is crucial to focus on attracting investments, promoting a healthy competitive market, and meeting end-user needs for achieving KSA’s ambitions.
As such, this pillar aims to achieve the following priorities:
• Stimulate the adoption of digital infrastructure services across end-users by providing benefits ensuring healthy balance in the market.
• Ensure sector growth by attracting local and foreign investments towards digital infrastructure ensuring higher availability of funds for expanding digital infrastructure and better services for the beneficiaries.
• Promote shared funding collaboration between public and private sectors to develop the digital infrastructure especially in rural and economically less attractive areas and ensure effective implementation.
• Ensure a healthy digital infrastructure ecosystem by enabling a balanced approach between minimum acceptable returns for private sector, and end-users’ needs to encourage and enable innovative business models.
• Promote neutral ownership of digital infrastructure ensuring that services are provided on a non-discriminatory basis promoting investment and ensuring competition and service quality
• Ensure network neutrality to provide transparency, prevent service providers from any discriminatory practices, and establish regulatory rules and standards that prevent discrimination in the provision of services
• Stimulate development of telecommunications providers to create adjacencies and enable digital services and solutions by providing the support and incentives required for innovation.
• Develop a framework for the national internet ecosystem to ensure clear roles and responsibilities, coordinate efforts, maximize the benefits for all, and protect end-users and service providers from unlawful operation and unlicensed provision of services by setting clear regulatory rules and standards.
5. Resilience and Internet Ecosystem
Digital infrastructure resilience is considered an important pillar to achieve KSA’s Vision 2030, as it allows networks and systems to withstand and overcome disruptions and continue to operate, which positively impact the national economy, enhances public safety, and ensures national security. In addition, internet ecosystem readiness will allow KSA to create a dynamic, innovative, and resilient internet, which allows for increase economic growth.
As such, this pillar aims to achieve the following priorities:
• Increase KSA’s digital infrastructure local and international resilience by enhancing localization and adding multiple connectivity routes.
• Achieve leadership in the development of a dynamic, innovative, and resilient Internet ecosystem that fosters inclusivity and safeguards interests of KSA citizens and residents.
• Adopt best practices for protection of digital infrastructure from cyber threats and other shocks
• Proactively prevent connectivity downtime through robust mechanisms, swift response to outages, and continuous improvement to maintain reliable connections.
• Establish an institutional framework to promote monitoring of activities, rapid dissemination of early warning disaster notifications and better coordination and collaboration between relevant entities.
• Ensure disaster response and recovery measures across the digital infrastructure are adopted and continuously updated.
• Ensure reliability by raising the readiness of the digital infrastructure by keeping pace with best practices and standards.
• Ensure the security of the infrastructure (physical infrastructure, hardware, network elements) as well as ensuring systems security (equipment, devices, distributed systems, virtual servers) in coordination with all relevant entities.