Article 19 of the Saudi Communications and Information Technology Law

This article is a referral article: it does not set out the detailed provisions itself but leaves it to the Implementing Regulations to specify two matters:

1. Provisions on public communications networks: establishing, operating and maintaining them.
2. Provisions on sharing cable-laying sites: that is, how infrastructure service providers share the sites in which networks are laid.

Restriction: This is without prejudice to what the relevant laws provide on protecting sites of special importance; the provisions of the Implementing Regulations do not go beyond what those laws impose.

This article connects to the one before it: Article 18 regulated installing equipment and establishing and maintaining networks inside real estate, agreement with the owner and restoring the property. A public network, under Article 1, is a wired or wireless communications system, local or international, that provides service to the user.

The idea of sharing sites means in practice that operators may use shared cable-laying sites instead of each building independent installations, but the controls and conditions for this are left entirely to the Implementing Regulations and cannot be known from the text of the article. Anyone who needs them should refer to the Implementing Regulations or consult a lawyer specializing in communications and information technology law.