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The Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA) has said that it has no immediate plans to increase the digits of mobile and fixed lines in Qatar since the current 8 digit system is enough to meet the requirements of the market.
CRA President Mohammed Ali Al Mannai, in an interview with Qatar News Agency said that the Authority will review the telecommunications market in Qatar, to prepare a new strategy for the sector and take the necessary steps to develop it.
Asked if there is any future plan to open the telecommunications market in Qatar to a third operator, Al Mannai said that “the ideal number of telecom service providers depends on the nature of each area and the market's needs.”
Citing a report of the "Arab Advisors Group" on the Internet services through fibre cables, the official said Qatar was placed at the lowest level in terms of prices with $144 per month, while Iraq ranked first in the region where 100 Mbps cost $350 per month.
A report published by the Communications Regulatory Authority in June this year showed that mobile home broadband prices in Qatar are among the lowest in the region and much lower than the average according to the standards of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
He, however said that the prices of leased lines and services provided to companies are relatively high compared to global standards, and “therefore one of the main concerns of the Authority is strengthening the presence of competitively priced solutions for businesses and thus supporting the Qatari economic diversification.”
He noted that Qatar has the highest rates of access to mobile operator in the world, with more than 5 million mobile numbers, in addition to about 1.4 million fixed line numbers.
Al Mannai said that the focus is not only on providing services at the lowest prices but also on ensuring better services.
“There must be a balance between price reductions for consumers in the short term and the provision of appropriate stimulus for innovation to enable competitiveness and investment capacity in new technologies in the long term,” said Al Mannai.
Competition strong among mobile service providers
The official said that Qatar was ranked 27th among most networked nations in the world and second among Arab countries, in the 2016 edition of the Global Information Technology Report GITR.
“But the reasonable cost issue remains a challenge which was highlighted in the digital scene report issued by the Ministry of Transport and Communications in June 2016 which showed companies' dissatisfaction of the cost of Internet as well as products and services of information technology,” he added.
He said there is a strong competition between mobile communication vendors in Qatar. However, the competition is weak between fixed line communication vendors.
In 2010, Qatar National Numbering Plan was implemented where the fixed and mobile phone digits increased from seven to eight which in turn increased the available numbers to meet future demand of communication services. CRA does not have plans to increase the digits at the moment, he added.
CRA launched Qatar Domains Registry which promotes competition and innovation in the market, and has licensed 17 local and international companies to offer domains registry services to the public. The number of registered domains have reached 22,000.
Qatar is among the first countries in the world to be able to offer domain names in Arabic similar to (.com); to represent Qatar’s Arabic language online identity, where he used Qatar University's website as an example for the use of Arabic domains.
CRA received 1,305 complaints from customers about telecommunications operators during the period between January to November this and 85% of them have been resolved. Statistics show that most of the complaints were about bills, service interruption, network coverage, and value added services, while complaints against fixed line service were about delay in the installation or removal of the service.
© The Peninsula 2016
