Cheaper roaming calls to GCC countries for Qatar customers

The Communication Regulatory Authority (CRA) yesterday announced a cut down in the roaming call rates from GCC countries by up to seven dirham per minute from April 2016.

This is to ensure that all customers are charged roughly the same by their service providers when they visit other GCC countries. The GCC consists of Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

The regulatory price caps come as the result of the coordinated efforts of the International Roaming Working Group, which consists of specialists from the telecommunications regulators in the GCC countries under the umbrella of the GCC General Secretariat in Riyadh – KSA.

At the meeting it was decided that cuts in charges for calls and text messages would be introduced from April 1, 2016, and would take place over three years, while data charges would be trimmed from the same date but over a five-year period.

The ceiling on local voice calls within the visited country will be QR0.95 per minute instead of QR1. The ceiling on voice calls to other GCC countries (including home country) will be QR2.33 per minute. For receiving voice calls, the price ceiling will be QR1.077 instead of QR1.277, while for sending (SMS), it will be QR0.292 per SMS. Price ceiling for mobile data will be QR4.74/mb.

We are committed to promoting market competition and bringing additional benefits to consumers,” said Mohammed Ali Al Mannai, President of the communication regulation authority(CRA).

It is worth noting that the establishment and implementation of regulated international roaming rates is a GCC wide achievement that is regarded as model to be pursued by other world regions. [The National,Reduction in gcc roaming charges]

Photo for Illustration only :( Corbis)