The Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA) is hosting the 12th meeting of the GCC International Roaming Working Group in Doha from April 26 to 30, with the objective of continuing the consultation and coordination on various issues related to International Roaming Charges towards common interests of consumers in the region.
One of the main topics of discussion at the 12th meeting is about the responses to the recent consultation on regulation of international mobile roaming services. The Roaming Working Group launched the consultation to receive feedback from GCC service providers and other stakeholders on the possibility to regulate international mobile roaming services such as video calls, data, SMS, MMS, etc.
The consultation also received feedback that will help determine whether further regulation is needed in this area. Towards this objective, GCC Ministers called for a review of the prices applied to international mobile roaming services in the region.
In his opening speech, Eng. Saleh Ali Al-Kuwari, Advisor, CRA, said, “The GCC Roaming Working Group is the basis for GCC member states to take a common approach on roaming matters of mutual interest and to make their voice heard in international and regional forums whenever this topic is raised. To keep pace with the continual development of new technologies and innovations, it is absolutely necessary to develop strategies and plans to make unified positions and decisions for the interests of the member countries.”
“On behalf of CRA, I am honored to host this important meeting in Qatar and certainly hope that the decisions taken here will empower the GCC consumers to be able to get benefit of the available options of the innovative high quality services with affordable prices,” Al-Kuwari added.
Ms. Khaloud Al-Dosari, Project Management Section Head, CRA, said, “The Group is focused on bringing more benefits to the consumers by the possibility to reduce and, if needed, regulate certain roaming service charges. A price cap was introduced at the retail and wholesale level on voice calls made within the visited country (local calls), and on calls made to other GCC member states (international calls), including the home country. The regulation to this price cap has been in effect since February 1, 2012.”
It is useful to mention, that the GCC Roaming Working Group was established in 2009 by the Gulf Council of Cooperation (GCC) Ministers to study roaming service issues related to voice calls in the telecommunication sector in the region.