Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA) participated in the ‘Telecommunications Retail Price Benchmarking for Arab Countries’ study by AREGNET which compares the prices of a range of telecoms services across the GCC, Arab and OECD (Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development) markets. Overall, the study revealed that the prices of telecoms services in Qatar are broadly lower than the rest of the GCC and Arab region.
The survey showed that mobile voice prices in Qatar have fallen 57 percent since 2008, which is in line with the rest of the region. However, importantly, for mobile voice services that included data bundles, prices in Qatar are below the GCC and Arab average (for Low and Medium usage) and on par with the OECD average. For mobile voice services not including data packages, Qatar’s prices are on a par with the GCC and Arab averages but above the OECD average. In both cases Vodafone Qatar was cheaper than Ooredoo.
“The AREGNET Benchmarking Report is a vital tool for assessing the growth and impact of competition in the telecommunications sector in Qatar. As the communications sector evolves and looks to support Qatar’s National Vision 2030, open and fair competition has increasingly become important to encourage sustainable growth and success. We shall use competition as a means to foster growth and innovation for everyone’s benefit. While the report highlights significant progress, with mobile voice call prices falling 57 percent in 8 years, there is still a long way to go,” Mohammed Ali Al-Mannai, President of CRA said. For Mobile Broadband services, there have been significant changes in Qatar over the last five years.
