Page 121 - SAMENA Trends - January-February 2023

REGULATORY & POLICY UPDATESATORY & POLICY UPDATES
REGUL SAMENA TRENDS

A SNAPSHOT OF REGULATORY ACTIVITIES

IN THE SAMENA REGION

Bahrain

The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Bahrain (TRA) speed needs. Philip Marnick, TRA's General Director, said: “The
welcomed members of the Wi-Fi Industry at their headquarters consumer is at the center of our work. Empowering and informing
in Seef District. Presentations and discussions were held on the consumers ensures that Bahrain’s telecoms market is competitive
capabilities of new Wi-Fi generations and their positions at the and consumer focused. The launch of Qaren marks a quantum
upcoming World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-23), in leap in terms of the benefits provided to consumers, it empowers
addition to Bahrain’s position regarding the upper 6Ghz Band. In them to compare features and prices of all the available plans and
addition to supporting the Kingdom’s digital economy, Wi-Fi 6 and select the most suitable service whether its mobile, broadband, or
Wi-Fi 6E will also foster digital transformation across all sectors fixed. The TRA is committed to continuing innovate and introduce
and the development of cutting-edge fields such as artificial initiatives aimed at providing knowledge, developing expertise,
intelligence. In this way, the telecommunications and ICT sector and enabling consumers to make informed decisions through
can contribute to economic growth in all sectors of the Kingdom’s fair competition." Shaikh Abdulla bin Humood Al Khalifa, Director
economy and support growth across all sectors. Furthermore, it of Consumer Affairs and Communications at TRA, said: "Due to
complies with the Government’s requirement that consumers high competition, there is a wide variety of plans and packages
should benefit from improving average download speeds over for consumers to choose from, each with different features and
time. This is to meet evolving consumer needs, and aspire to be benefits, making the decision-making process quite complicated
among the leading countries regionally, when it comes to download and hefty for most consumers. Qaren helps consumers first
and upload speeds. “New Wi-Fi generations 6 & 6E facilitates the understand their needs and accordingly choose the plan that
objective of faster download speeds to consumers, as does the best fits them. Qaren is an outcome of the Consumer Experience
nationwide 5G coverage and the increasing fiber coverage. A Policy, which is intended to ensure that all policies related to the
maximum data rate of almost 10Gbps is provided by Wi-Fi 6 & Wi- telecoms sector focuses on enhancing the consumer experience
Fi 6E, the latest version of unlicensed wireless networking. As a and satisfaction."
result, gaming, artificial and virtual reality, IoT, 4K/8K video, etc., (January 16, 2023) www.tradearabia.com
can benefit from improved latency, improved connection quality,
and faster data transfer.” Says Eng. Hasan Mohamed Hasan, The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) published the
Director of Spectrum at TRA “This will allow improved quality of 2022 Consumer Experience Report, which measures consumers’ Draft
service, new areas for innovation, will encourage small businesses satisfaction with Mobile Network Operators’ services across
to introduce new products and services, and will enable remote both residential and corporate markets. The report contributes
monitoring and control of machinery throughout the Kingdom." to the TRA's goal of understanding users' perceptions and
(January 30, 2023) www.tra.org.bh satisfaction with mobile, broadband, and fixed-line services. The
survey was conducted among approximately 2,330 consumers,
TRA Bahrain has launched Qaren, a service comparator platform with satisfaction measured across four main pillars: services,
to enable users to compare the costs and features of a wide customer support, charging activity, and consumer knowledge.
variety of telecom plans. This helps them chose the telecoms "The Consumer Experience Report is in line with the TRA's work
plans that best meet their specific needs. Qaren supports the to improve the telecoms services every one of us uses. It helps
continued development of a competitive market among telecom empower consumers to make informed decisions about telecoms
operators whilst ensuring it is consumer focused. It guides the services. It also helps operators by highlighting their performance
user through a series of questions, allowing them to customize in areas that matter to consumers, “Philip Marnick, the General
and tailor their search as they go. Additionally, the platform offers Director of TRA said.
user friendly calculators that help users estimate their data and (January 1, 2023) www.bna.bh/en

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