Page 145 - SAMENA Trends - September 2019

REGULATORY & POLICY UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

Oman

The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) has infrastructure the design of the in-building telecom infrastructure
directed telecommunications companies in the Sultanate to will have to be incorporated in the actual master plan, making it
activate emergency plans and facilitate the activation of local a prerequisite before the municipality issues a building permit.
roaming in case of need as a result of the tropical situation According to TRA, this is to ensure that a subscriber gets access
Hikaa. In a statement TRA said, “The TRA has directed the to quality telecom services at the best available prices in the
telecommunications companies in the Sultanate to activate market and ‘such a right to seek out should not be denied’.
emergency plans and facilitate the activation of local roaming ‘Current contractual arrangements between operators and
whenever needed to face the effects that may result from the building owners/developers constrain the fundamental user right
tropical situation (Hikaa), which is likely to be exposed to the of free choice of their telecommunications supplier,’ TRA stated
provinces of South Al Sharqiyah and Al Wusta. “ “The emergency in its ‘public consultation on the Framework for In-Building
plan is a regulatory obligation for telecommunications companies Telecommunications Infrastructure’, for which it is calling all the
to check the readiness of telecommunication networks and be stakeholders to submit their comments to it by October 17, 2019.
activated in case of exceptional cases and updated periodically,” ‘The new in-building infrastructure framework is expected to
TRA added. (September 25, 2019) timesofoman.com reduce the cost of the telecommunications system and thereby
incentivize further and faster investment in fiber network. Thus, it
The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) is working will become a major policy measure to achieve the objectives of
on a new regulation under which the developer/building owner the national broadband strategy.
will have to deploy and bear the cost of the in-building telecom (September 2, 2019) muscatdaily.com

Pakistan

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has sought of their license fee. Back in August, Telenor and Jazz agreed to
two-month time for submitting a complete plan for launching make payments towards renewal of their licenses, to avoid the
the 5G telecom technology in the country. The Pakistan disruption of their mobile services. Jazz agreed to pay around USD
Telecommunication Authority (PTA) had requested applications 291 million, and Telenor Pakistan announced it would voluntarily
for a license issuance. In May, Minister for Science and Technology pay USD 224.6 million. The operators were expected to make the
had announced that the work on 5G technology in Pakistan was payments by 21 August or face the withdrawal of their licenses.
underway and it would be available soon in the country. However, they contested the amounts set by the Pakistan
(September 18, 2019) dailytimes.com.pk Telecommunications Authority, saying these were unreasonably
high. In July, the PTA set the price of mobile license renewal at
Pakistani mobile operators Telenor Pakistan and PMCL (Jazz) USD 39.5 million per MHz for the 900 MHz spectrum and USD
have made a partial payment of USD 224.6 million and PKR 35.39 29.5 million per MHz for 1800 MHz spectrum. The payment terms
billion (approximately USD 224.6 mln), respectively, for their for the renewal fee is 100 percent upfront or 50 percent upfront
license renewal fee. According to Pakistan Telecommunications with the remaining 50 percent in five equal annual installments on
Authority (PTA), this partial payment is equivalent to 50 percent LIBOR plus 3 percent. (September 10, 2019) telecompaper.com

Saudi Arabia

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia participated in the World Telecom he thanked the Government of Hungary for hosting the event,
Exhibition 2019 in Budapest, Hungary, as the exhibition brings highlighting its good reception and organization. He emphasized
together governments, institutions and small and medium-sized the Kingdom’s determination to continue to provide the best
companies in the field of technology to showcase innovative digital services to its population, having established regulatory
solutions, communicate, share knowledge and debate with governance in order to achieve more qualitative leaps towards
experts. Dr. Abdulaziz bin Salem Al-Ruwais, Governor of the digital economy and contribute to the growth of the
Communications and Information Technology Commission telecommunications and information technology sector. He
(CITC) of Saudi Arabia, delivered a speech at the event in which added that the Kingdom recently celebrated the launch of more
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