Within its mandate stipulated in the Telecommunications Law, the Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA) has issued today a Class License for Wireless Home Area Networks (WHANs), which is granted, in accordance with the provisions of chapter three of Decree Law No. (34) of 2006 on the promulgation of the Telecommunications Law and its amendments, to a specific category of service providers and applies to any person in this category without having to request this License.
This Class License issued by CRA relates to wireless networks that facilitate communication between group of devices and equipment inside or near the home. Under this Class License, licensees will be entitled to import and operate wireless networks in their homes, in frequencies or frequency bands that are defined in the Class License, and for various applications defined for home use, by using the technologies specified in the License and in accordance with the standard specifications and related technical requirements.
Devices and equipment that are covered in this Class License include, but are not limited to, clock devices, speakers and home theater systems, lighting control systems, doorbell control systems, security cameras and monitoring systems, window and window blinds systems, cooling, air conditioning and water heating systems inside the home, kitchen appliances, meter reading systems, and many other devices and equipment.
The issuance of this Class License is part of the CRA’s efforts to develop its regulatory framework, where the CRA aims to encourage the introduction of advanced Information and Communications Technology to meet the needs of customers and the public. Consistently, CRA published last year a public consultation on the draft Class License for WHANs, and received responses from stakeholders and several international companies, who deal with WHANs technologies and its related standard specifications and subsequently took into consideration the related submissions that are in line with the standard specifications adopted by the CRA and serve the development of this type of technology in Qatar.
In this context, His Excellency Mohammed Ali Al-Mannai, President of CRA, said: “we are pleased to develop this Class License for WHANs as a new regulatory instrument. This, for sure, will provide the additional capabilities required to improve the quality of life inside the home in a variety of ways. There are many wireless devices and equipment inside each home, and these devices often gain enhanced emergent capabilities through their ability to interact, and therefore these capabilities can be used to improve personal productivity, automate of repetitive tasks, enhance home security, and ease access to entertainment,”
“I would like to thank all the stakeholders and international companies for their submissions as responses to the CRA public consultation. It was truth pleasure to see that interest from many partners on CRA’s regulatory instruments. We highly value the received comments and views and believe that the same will benefit the industry and the end users of these technologies as well. WHANs technologies are part of the future strategies for smart buildings and smart cities and CRA is looking forward to support those strategies by developing future regulatory instruments to facilitate the adoption of these technologies in Qatar to be among the first countries to deploy it.” he added.