Final Report on the GCC International Mobile Roaming consultation

The Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA) has published the final report of consultation to assess the effectiveness of the existing regulations and a review of International Mobile Roaming (IMR) services. The consultation was launched by CRA in tandem with its counterparts in other members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) last year. The consultation was launched after the GCC ministers called for an assessment of the effectiveness of the existing regulation related to voice calls and review of other IMR services and included data, SMS, MMS, and video calls. The final consultation report published on this page, summarizes the responses of the Roaming Working Group (RWG) to the stakeholders’ feedback and comments on the consultation. The final document also assesses effectiveness of the current regulation, the rationale for regulatory intervention at GCC level, and the approved new price caps for roaming charges. The reductions of roaming charges on both inter-operator wholesale level and end-user retail level will take place gradually, over a three years period, for voice calls and SMS services, and over a five years period for mobile data services. The approved price caps are based on the recommendations of the RWG, which comprises representatives from the telecom regulators of the six GCC members states. These price reductions come in continuation of the previous initiative of cooperation between the GCC regulators under the auspices of the GCC General Secretariat. It is worth mentioning that the prices caps are ceilings and the operators are free to compete by setting prices below these regulatory caps and can provide more attractive offers to the consumers.