Cullen International’s new regulatory update from Middle Eastern and North African countries sheds light on the major developments occurring between May and October 2021 across seven countries.

Egypt and Kuwait adopted regulatory frameworks for cloud services which set out the licensing requirements and other regulatory obligations. Oman issued a final consultation report with the main regulatory obligations that will be included in a future regulatory framework for data centres and cloud services.

Algeria required mobile operators to launch mobile number portability by June 2022, while Egypt adopted new rules to facilitate switching between internet providers.

Jordan wants to release 5G spectrum in 2022, and issued a new regulation governing bulk SMS services.

Saudi Arabia enacted a personal data protection law which will come into force in March 2022.

Etisalat Group signed an agreement to increase its indirect stake in Maroc Telecom, while Zain received new offers to sell the majority of its towers in Saudi Arabia.

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