Communications Regulatory Authority will Review Telecommunications Market in Qatar

Doha, December 19 (QNA) - The Communications Regulatory Authority has revealed that it will make a review of the telecommunications market in the State of Qatar, which will allow it to prepare a new strategy for the sector and take the necessary steps to develop it. Regarding the existence of a future plan of the Authority to open the telecommunications market in Qatar for a third operator, President of the Communications Regulatory Authority Mohammed Ali Al Mannai said in an interview with Qatar News Agency (QNA) that the ideal number of telecom service providers depends on the nature of each area and the market's needs. About the prices of Qatar's telecom services, Al Mannai explained that the prices of mobile and Internet services in the State of Qatar are in line with the rest of the countries in the region, adding that according to a report of the "Arab Advisors Group" on the Internet services through fibre cables, Iraq ranked first in the rising prices in the region where the rate of 100 Mbps costs $350 per month, while the State of Qatar was placed at the penultimate with a cost of $144 per month. Al Mannai pointed out that with respect to mobile broadband, a report published by the Communications Regulatory Authority in June 2016 showed that mobile home broadband prices in Qatar are among the lowest prices in the region and much lower than the average according to the standards of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). But he 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 the strengthening of the presence of competitively priced solutions for businesses and thus supporting the Qatari economic diversification. To promote a knowledge-based economy, Al Mannai said that the basis of the competition is to provide better services and not only to provide services at the lowest price and 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. He also revealed that Qatar has the highest rates of access to mobile operator in the world, where the mobile numbers that have been allocated reached more than 5 million numbers, in addition to about 1,4 million fixed number. Regarding the contribution of the telecommunications sector in the national economy, he said that the telecommunications sector and information technology is a key component to build a knowledge-based society based on multiple electronic services such as health and education services in addition to smart cities, as the prosperous telecommunications sector and information technology support the economic diversification away from oil-based economy in accordance with the objectives of Qatar national vision 2030. The President of the Communications Regulatory Authority further added that there is a lot of evidence of the positive impact of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) on the development as the ICT is enabling us to accomplish matters with more effective and efficient ways, and create opportunities for new projects and business. An example of that in 2011, Facebook applications provided more than 182 thousand jobs around the world and the total value of the application exceeded $ 12 billion. Therefore there was no reason not to develop such an application in the State of Qatar if the appropriate conditions are available. Al Mannai noted that the level of the telecommunications sector in the State of Qatar is perfect as Qatar ranked 27th among most networked nations in the world and second among Arab countries, on 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. (MORE)