The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) Bahrain has announced that GCC mobile users will enjoy further price reductions on roaming rates from April 1.
This marks the second year of price reductions, and will continue with further reductions every year, until 2020, a statement said.
Data roaming in the GCC will now cost 35 per cent less, apart from other roaming price reductions, the TRA said. Data roaming rates which used to be 489 fils per megabyte has now been reduced to 320 fils.
The roaming rates for calls made from another GCC country to Bahrain will go down from 241 fils per minute to 233 fils. Calls made within the GCC state, which used to cost 98 fils per minute, will now be 94 fils. SMS messages, which were 30 fils, will now be 26 fils per message.
The roaming regulation began with the GCC Ministerial Committee’s first decision in 2010, when the need arose to address the high costs of roaming that consumers were exposed to. This led to the formation of the Roaming Working Group, represented by regulators from each Gulf country and spearheaded by TRA Bahrain with the goal of enriching the lives of its residents and citizens with a solution for more accessible roaming services, said the statement.
“91 million mobile users in the GCC will be able to take advantage of the new price caps,” said deputy general director of TRA Sheikh Nasser bin Mohamed Al Khalifa.