5G rollout to revive Saudi economy, support investments after COVID-19: STC chief executive

Saudi Arabia should integrate the 5G technology into different business sectors to revive economy and reshape investment plans, said Nasser Al Nasser, Chief Executive Officer of STC Group and Chairman of SAMENA Telecommunications Council during a summit held in Dubai.

"Amid the coronavirus pandemic outbreak, the communications and information technology sector proved to be not just an industry; it plays a key role in improving the way we manage crises," said Al Nasser.

During the pandemic outbreak, the Saudi telecom operators took a number of prompt measures to ensure providing high-quality services. They also launched a number of COVID-19-specfic applications to raise awareness and detect the number of cases.

In addition, STC doubled the network capacity and increased access to services through mystc platform to more than 20,000 per day, from 1,000 per day before the COVID-19 outbreak.

Al Nasser called on the Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) and other operators to take a number of additional temporary measures to ensure sufficient network capacity.