The role of competition law in the telecommunications sector in Saudia Arabia

Abstract

The telecommunications sector is growing at an exponential rate as technology continues to advance and consumer demands continue to change. However, an evolving market brings with it a growing national economic need for a sustainable telecommunications sector. For many years, Saudi Arabia’s telecommunications sector was monopolised by the majority state-owned Saudi Telecom Company. However, in an effort to bring competition to the sector and encourage privatisation, Saudi Arabia first enacted sectorspecific rules within the Telecommunications Act in 2001, followed by the broad Competition Law in 2004 as part of its journey to acceptance by the World Trade Organization. However, many of the anti-competitive practices that the laws sought to eliminate persist under the current framework. This study examines the state of competition in the telecommunications sector under Sharia, under the Telecommunications Act, and after the implementation of the Competition Law. The goal is to understand what effects, if any, each step of the legislative process has had on competition. Having evaluated the current state of the sector, this study then examines the competition models of telecommunications sectors in other jurisdictions to identify what lessons can be learned by Saudi Arabia and integrated into its competition model. Ultimately, this study argues that a harmonised framework in which both the Telecommunications Act and Competition Law work in concert will be the most effective means of increasing efficiency and creating a stable economic environment. This study also looks at how such a framework could be implemented within the Saudi system.