(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Making roaming calls from GCC countries will become cheaper by up to seven dirham per minute from April next year.
The Communication Regulatory Authority (CRA) yesterday announced a cap on roaming charges for voice calls, SMS and mobile data.
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.
CRA's announcement comes after the GCC Ministerial Committee for Post, Telecommunications and Information Technology agreed to reduce roaming charges in member states in a meeting in Doha last month.
The meeting decided to reduce roaming charges gradually over three years for voice calls and SMS services and for mobile data services over five years.
Service providers are free to set prices below these regulatory caps, said CRA. "We are committed to promoting market competition and bringing additional benefits to consumers," said Mohammed Ali Al Mannai, President, CRA.
"The initiative is in line with our mandate to boost affordable state-of-the-art and innovative technology and telecommunications services in Qatar," he added.
Service providers in Qatar have special roaming packages aimed at those who extensively use roaming mobile and data services abroad. Some current local retail charges for voice calls are lower than GCC ceilings. There are promotions also such as roaming 'Passport' packages useful for specific consumer roaming needs.
The first roaming regulation was issued in June 2010 and took full effect in February 2012. It covered roaming voice calls but excluded other roaming services such as mobile data and SMS.
The new regulation, a result of a comprehensive study and public consultation by GCC Roaming Working Group, addresses the gap.
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