Saudi Arabia's telecom industry regulators had announced that Telecom company Virgin Mobile Middle East & Africa (VMMEA) was one of three companies that won a virtual telecom license in the kingdom.

Partly owned by British entrepreneur Richard Branson's Virgin Group, VMMEA  launched an MVNO on Saudi Telecom Co.'s network, Communication and Information Technology Commission (CITC).

The two other license winners were Jawraa Lebara, which has joined forces with Etihad Etisalat (Mobily), and Dubai-based Axiom Telecom which teamed up  with Zain Saudi. Losing bidders were local companies FastNet and Safari.

The granting of the mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) license was part of Saudi Arabia's effort to liberalize its communications sector.  The MVNOs were not the owners of the networks but  merely leased capacity from convention operators in providing communication services.

With the grant of MVNOs, Saudi had become the second Gulf Cooperation Council member to allow MVNOs.