In line with the Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA) aim of improving the consumers’ experience and ensuring the sustainable competition and development of the telecommunications market in Qatar, His Excellency Mohammed Ali Al-Mannai, President of CRA has issued a decision to promulgate the new Retail Tariff Instruction (RTI) for telecommunications services, to be complied by all service providers in Qatar, effective January 1, 2019.
The new RTI will provide the service providers with more flexibility, as it will allow the introduction of new tariffs and promotions targeting specific sectors or customer segments. Service providers will be required to publish these tariffs and promotions on their respective websites. This approach has been chosen by CRA as a regulatory best practice to encourage the competition in the telecommunications market.
“CRA is keen to promote sustainable competition and ensure the provision of a broad range of high quality and innovative services in the telecommunications market. The new Retail Tariff Instruction is developed to encourage service providers to offer higher quality services at lower prices and tariffs tailored to customers’ specific needs. This will in turn benefit both the service providers and consumers, and will lead to the development of the sector in Qatar,” said H.E. Al-Mannai.
The new Retail Tariff Instruction aims to increase the transparency of the tariffs available in the markets, and to avoid the introduction of illegal tariffs. The service providers have 4 months from January 1, 2019 to regularize illegal tariffs in the market and to move their customers to the tariffs that are in compliant with the new RTI.
The first RTI was published in 2009; it outlines the general rules and the process for approval for all retail tariffs.