Kuwait: MoC, 3 telecom firms under fire for charging high rates

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'Charges to be reduced before Sept 21'
KUWAIT CITY, Sept 3: The Parliamentary Utilities Committee criticized the Ministry of Communications (MoC)Ministry of Communications (MoC) and the three telecommunication companies for charging high tariffs and call rates from mobile phone users and accused the ministryministry of being hand-in-glove with the companies, reports Al-Seyassah daily.

Although ministryministry Undersecretary assured that the call rates will be reduced before Sept 21, the committee members accused the ministryministry of being slack in monitoring the telecom companies.
MP Dr Faisal Al-Muslim said the committee discussed a draft law about establishing an authority to organize communication affairs and another draft law to establish a company for providing infrastructure in order to improve the services provided to companies. He said the committee will hold its next meeting on Sept 23 and added that it asked the ministryministry to force companies to charge calls per seconds.
Committee member MP Naji Al-Abdulhadi said the minister has the power to reduce call rates, but he is not serious about the issue.

Rapporteur of the Committee, MP Faisal Al-Muslim, said the ministryministry's undersecretary justifying the companies do not take permission to update the service rate is unreasonable, and added that Law Number 26/1996 authorizes the Minister of Communications to regulate the subscription and call rates, which also gives the minister the right to review them annually.

Al-Muslim required the ministryministry must oblige the telecommunications companies to charge calls per second, while monitoring the other services.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of CommunicationsMinistry of Communications has not yet implemented Minister Mohammad Al-Baseeri's announcement about charging local and international calls per second instead of per minute, reports Al-Seyassah daily.

Sources said there are several reasons for the delay; firstly the ministryministry and the telephone sectors of other GCC countries have not settled on the mechanism to be followed in the six countries. Secondly, the three local telecommunication companies have not come to an agreement in this regard yet and some companies want to exchange this service with other services.

According to sources, work on 'charges per second' resolution will be delayed until after Eid Al-Fitr, in addition to work on other resolutions regarding international calls and transferring lines between the three local firms, especially since these resolutions need to be agreed upon.

The ministryministry is currently taking steps to eliminate the trading of international calls as it is incurring losses worth more than KD 90 million, noted sources.

© Arab Times 2010