The Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA) has met full and diverse range of national scarce resources needs such as, numbering, domain names and spectrum. Throughout 2017, CRA allocated 100,000 mobile numbers to service providers, registered 3,272 new Qatari domain names, issued 1,311 spectrum licenses and assigned 649 frequencies.
“CRA is keen to ensure the effective management and allocation of the national scarce resources and to meet all current and future needs. CRA also ensures that the use of such resources is rationed in a fair and transparent manner.” H.E. Mohammed Ali Al-Mannai, President of CRA.
In the field of spectrum management, CRA issued during the year 407 import authorization licenses (up by 12% from 363 in 2016), issued 1,082 type approval certificates for radio and telecommunications terminal equipment (RTTE) and received 22,317 custom clearance applications. Furthermore, CRA received 56 spectrum interference cases (down by 33% from 84 in 2016) and conducted 6 quality of service investigations relating to the consumers’ complaints received during 2017 (down by 45% from 11 in 2016).
CRA conducted two routine inspections on 546 shops that are selling radio and telecommunication equipment (up by 180% from 195 shops in 2016) and issued 257 violation notices for shops that were selling telecoms devices and equipment without having the required licenses. CRA also played a significant role in supporting spectrum requirements of 3 major events during the year including the National Day Celebration, the final round of the Superbike World Championship and FIA World Touring Car Championship.
CRA has made considerable effort to encourage the uptake of “.qa” domain names which allow local businesses to secure a reliable and reachable name on the Internet and ensure that they reflect their Qatari identity when they provide their services to their local and international customers. During 2017 CRA registered 3,272 new domains (up nearly 10% from 2,981 in 2016) which indicates that Qatari domain extensions are serving the Qatari market and community well. Also the total number of registered Qatari domains reached 20,253.
In the field of numbering management, during 2017 CRA allocated 100,000 new mobile numbers and 10,000 fixed-line numbers to service providers. As of December 31, 2017, a total of 8.1 million mobile and 1.46 million fixed line numbers have been allocated. Throughout the year, 29,466 mobile numbers were ported and 5,914 mobile numbers were returned under mobile number portability service.
In addition to mobile and fixed-line numbers allocation, CRA assigned 15 numbering resources for other services that includes toll free, public service and licensed operator service. Furthermore, with emergence of new services like M2M/IoT and the need to keep the numbering plan in pace with the global technological developments. CRA is working to update the national numbering distribution table and policy which will be issued in 2018.
