The Communication Regulatory Authority (CRA) is putting in place the necessary regulatory instruments to ensure the effective implementation of the decision by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Ministerial Committee for Post, Telecommunications and Information Technology to reduce roaming charges in members’ states. This improvement to current roaming rates will benefit telecom consumers in Qatar and other GCC member states.
Service providers in Qatar already have special roaming packages, particularly aimed at those customers who extensively use roaming mobile and data services abroad. This new regulation will reduce rates for roaming, telephone calls, text messaging and data services throughout the GCC countries, even for customers who only need limited access to roaming services.
The reduction in roaming charges is a continuation of the collaboration and cooperation between the GCC regulators, under the auspices of the GCC General Secretariat. The first roaming regulation was issued in June 2010 and took full effect in February 2012. It covered roaming voice calls but excluded other roaming services such as mobile data and SMS. The new regulation, a result of comprehensive study and public consultation by the GCC Roaming Working Group, addresses this gap.
“We are committed to promoting market competition, and bringing additional benefits to consumers,” said Mohammed Ali Al-Mannai, President of the CRA. “This initiative is in line with CRA’s mandate to boost affordable state-of-the-art and innovative technology and telecommunications services in Qatar,” he added.
Announced by the GCC Ministerial Committee for Post, Telecommunications and Information Technology during its 24th meeting held in Doha in June reduced roaming rates for voice calls, SMS, and mobile data services will be effective April 1, 2016. The reductions in roaming charges on both the 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.
To implement this decision, CRA is announcing the specific price ceilings for voice calls, SMS services and mobile data services. The service providers are free to set prices below these regulatory caps. Some of the current local retail charges for voice calls are lower than the GCC price ceilings. Additionally there are promotions such as roaming “Passport” packages, which are useful for specific consumer roaming needs.
The following table lists the retail price ceilings that will take effect on April 1, 2016 for voice calls, SMS, and mobile data roaming services:
| While roaming | Current | After April 1, 2016 | After April 1, 2017 | After April 1, 2018 | After April 1, 2019 | After April 1, 2020 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Making local voice calls within the visited country [QAR/min] |
1.00 |
0.95 |
0.091 |
0.88 |
NA |
NA |
|
Making voice calls to other GCC countries (including home country) [QAR/min] |
2.40 |
2.33 |
2.26 |
2.19 |
NA |
NA |
|
Receiving voice calls [QAR/min] |
- |
1.277 |
1.022 |
0.803 |
NA |
NA |
|
Sending SMS [QAR/SMS] |
- |
0.292 |
0.255 |
0.219 |
NA |
NA |
|
Mobile Data [QAR/MByte] |
- |
4.74 |
3.10 |
2.19 |
1.825 |
1.533 |
The CRA will continue to promote competition in the sector, increase customer benefits, and boost the availability of advanced, innovative and reliable telecommunications services across the state. The Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA) is the Communications Regulator in the state of Qatar established by virtue of Emiri Decree (42) in 2014. CRA regulates the Telecommunications and Information Technology sector, postal services, access to digital media and spectrum. The CRA encourages and supports an open and competitive Information & Communications Technology (ICT) sector that provides advanced, innovative, and reliable communications services. Balancing the rights of consumers with the need of service providers is at the heart of everything the CRA does.