The Communications Regulatory Authority’s (CRA) public outreach event to celebrate World Consumer Rights day under the theme “Better Digital World” concluded today. The event was held in Mall of Qatar from 14 - 17 March 2019 and aimed to raise awareness about telecom consumers’ rights and responsibilities.
During the event, CRA surveyed 493 visitors. The results indicate that 49% of respondents were aware that they have the right to lodge a telecom complaint to CRA if their telecom service provider did not resolve their lodged complaint. Also 56% of respondents said that they have faced a fraud attempt via telephone calls, SMS messages or social media and have been asked to disclose personal information related to their telecom or bank accounts. However, 78% confirmed that they had the appropriate awareness not to disclose the information.
“During the event, we have noticed an increase in visitors' awareness about the importance of being aware of their rights and responsibilities as telecom consumers. CRA ensures to balance the rights of consumers with the needs of service providers, consumers’ awareness of their rights and responsibilities contributes to the development of the sector, by encouraging telecom service providers to provide the best competitive services towards consumers’ satisfaction,” said Eng. Faisal Ali Al-Shuaibi, Public Relations & Communications Manager, CRA.
The event also included a range of awareness activities for kids and adults, and CRA’s team provided visitors with awareness tips on different topics related to telecom services such as international roaming, bills, and scam SMS messages and calls. The CRA team talked to visitors about CRA’s role, public services and telecom complaint process, in addition, visitors were able to lodge their complaints onsite.
Telecom consumers can lodge a complaint to CRA through different channels: from Qatar through CRA’s 24/7 hotline number (103), 00974 44069938 from overseas, CRA’s email address consumervoice@cra.gov.qa, CRA’s mobile application “Arsel”, CRA’s twitter account @CRAqatar, filling CRA’s complaint form on the website www.cra.gov.qa, or by visiting the CRA’s headquarters at Al Nasr Tower B.