CRA steps up measures to provide better connectivity
THE Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA), in cooperation with local telecom service providers -- Ooredoo Qatar and Vodafone Qatar -and with one of the sector’s key players Microsoft, has taken a set of measures to provide offers for telecom services to help people of Qatar to work remotely from home easily and securely during the precautionary measures taken to limit the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19).
The CRA said the first priority was to ensure telecom networks’ continuity and readiness to handle the additional traffic without affecting the quality of services to the consumers, and at the best price. These measures will support all telecom services like voice calls and internet to facilitate the working remotely from home during this period. In this regard, the CRA contacted Ooredoo Qatar and Vodafone Qatar and requested their united efforts to meet consumers’ needs by introducing promotional packages. Both Ooredoo Qatar and Vodafone Qatar have doubled the speed of internet for existing residential customers and also doubled the mobile data for residential and business customers, free of additional charges.
WITH the support of the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MoTC), the Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA) took the initiative, in cooperation with local telecom service providers Ooredoo Qatar and Vodafone Qatar, and Microsoft, to take a set of measures to provide packages to help Qatar residents to work remotely from home easily and securely during the precautionary measures taken to limit the spread of Covid-19.
According to the measures, the priority was to ensure telecom networks’continuity and readiness to handle the additional traffic without affecting the quality of services provided to the consumers, and to provide consumers with the best possible quality of service and price.
In addition to ensuring that the employees who are working in the telecom sector are following all possible prevention measures to stay healthy, which will secure the needed resources for business continuity. The measures will support all telecom services like voice calls and internet to facilitate the work remotely from home during this period, where consumers need faster connectivity services and additional data at prices affordable by the community.
To achieve this, the CRA contacted Ooredoo Qatar and Vodafone Qatar and requested efforts to meet consumers’ needs by introducing many promotional packages and setting its duration based on the circumstances. Both Ooredoo Qatar and Vodafone Qatar have doubled the speed of internet for existing residential customers and doubled the mobile data for residential and business customers, free of additional charges.
The CRA said both companies have made an effort to connect more customers to the internet services, either waiving the connection fees or introducing new affordable mobile broadband services; to provide residential and business customers - operating either in strategic sectors or in sectors which revenues are impacted by this emergency - with speed and bandwidth upgrade for free; to support units of the government at the forefront of the fight against the COVID-19 with additional mobile data and/or minutes; and to provide unlimited support for the health and education sectors by ensuring to increase internet capacity that is needed to meet their needs.
The full list of packages can be found on Ooredoo Qatar and Vodafone Qatar websites. Both companies have ensured that they will continue supporting their customers during this difficult period, in coordination with the MoTC and the CRA.
Additional promotional packages might be introduced into the market, consistently with the CRA’s Code on Advertising Marketing and Branding, Telecom Consumer Protection Policy and the Retail Tariff Instructions.
The measures also included facilitating the remote operation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), while following the precautionary measures to limit the spread of COVID-19, by enabling them to access collaboration tools for free through cloud computing platform of Microsoft, which is one of Qatar’s international partners in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector, as it has launched an initiative to provide a number of free services nationwide, such as the customized package of “Office 365”. Microsoft provides users with a range of software and tools that significantly facilitate businesses remote operation, like voice and video conference calls, along with documents and forms management and storage. The CRA confirms that businesses can get access to these products for free for a certain period of time by contacting Microsoft’s partners. The CRA has published on its website, the Microsoft’s partners contact details and related information https:/ / cra.gov.qa/ en/ Consumer/ Work-from-Home.
The CRA will also launch an outreach campaign in cooperation with the Ministry of Commerce and Industry that will target SMEs to inform them about how they can benefit from these free services.
President of CRA Mohammed Ali al Mannai said, “I thank MoTC for its support to these initiatives and thank Qatar’s international partner and local telecom service providers for their efforts. This broad range of partners have enabled the ICT sector to respond quickly to this emergency.”
Ooredoo Qatar Acting CEO Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdullah bin Mohammed al Thani said, “For the health and safety of our employees and customers in these uncertain times, we were among the first companies in Qatar to have taken preventive measures by asking our employees to work remotely and encouraging our customers to use our available digital platforms for all their transactions. More than ever before, we’re aware of the importance of reliable telecommunications to our customers, our businesses and our economy.”
Chief Executive Officer of Vodafone Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Abdulla bin Jassim al Thani said, “Vodafone Qatar is committed to doing its utmost to support Qatar’s government in combatting the spread of this novel virus and meeting the needs of our customers and wider society during this unprecedented time. As a provider of critical connectivity and communications services enabling our digital society, we are aware of the massive responsibility we shoulder and have been quick to introduce several measures in response to this rapidly evolving situation.”