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TRA’s Board approves 2009 Budget and Schedule of fees paid by operators

  • November 27th, 2008
  • 8:25 am

The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA), Board of Directors at their 46th meeting approved TRA’s 2009 Budget together with a revised schedule of fees paid by licensed operators and users of spectrum.

TRA’s Chairman of the Board of Directors Mr. Mohammed Ahmed Al Amer said “The approved 2009 fees have been adjusted and will assist the smaller telecommunications companies in these difficult financial times. Further they will encourage the larger companies who use significant spectrum and telephone numbers to efficiently utilize theses scarce resources”.

TRA’s General Director Mr. Alan Horne said: “TRA has an objective to rebalance its charges to reflect actual costs associated with its main regulatory activities. It is also important that Licensees use the scarce resources of spectrum, rights of way over land and numbers wisely”.

About TRA
Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) was established by Legislative Decree No. 48 of 2002 promulgating the Telecommunications Law. TRA is an independent body and its duties and powers include, among other things, protecting the interests of subscribers and users and promoting effective and fair competition among existing and new licensed operators.

For more information please visit www.tra.org.bh

About Wireless Federation

Wireless Federation is an industry research conglomerate headquartered in London, United Kingdom. The mandate of the Wireless Federation is to provide its members and customers industry knowledge that can further enhance their understanding of the wireless industry. Wireless Federation conducts bespoke research and produces boxed reports in collabaration with Industry Bodies, Telecom Operators for Issues that revolve around ARPU, CHURN and Loyalty.
They have been associated with more than 225 mobile operators globally to set their Pricing/ Tariff Strategies, Go-To-Market Strategies for Mobile Advertising, Mobile Payments, Cutting VAS among others amongst 59 countries globally.

For more information please visit www.wirelessfederation.com

TRA extends bid submission deadline to Jan’09 (Bahrain)

  • November 26th, 2008
  • 8:15 am

Bahrain’s telecoms watchdog, TRA extends the deadline for submission of bids for country’s third mobile licence to 11 January’09, catering to the requests made by the bidding companies. Rob Middlehurst, director of market and competition at the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) said registered parties have asked for more time to work out their bids.”Under the current economic conditions, TRA would like to give them ample time to pull together the right organization and consortium where necessary”, he said.
Four companies are reportedly registered to bid for Bahrain’s third mobile licence.

   

TRA extends bid submission deadline to November-end (Bahrain)

  • November 5th, 2008
  • 5:40 am

The Telecommunication Regulatory Authority, Bahrain, agrees to extend the bid submission deadline for the country’s third mobile licence. TRA had earlier recieved formal requests to extend the dealdline from the registered companies.
According to TRA companies can submit their bids until November end extended by nearly 2 weeks and will then announce the new timetable for evaluation.

   

TRA calls for additional GSM-1800 spectrum (Bahrain)

  • October 30th, 2008
  • 5:01 am

Bahrain’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) has invited tender to bid for a single 15-year wireless frequency licence within the GSM-1800 ‘guard band’. The new licence will take into account an initial 5MHz assignment of radio spectrum (1790MHz–1795MHz) and a further 5MHz block (1795MHz–1800MHz) reserved for the successful bidder, to be requested for assignment no earlier than twelve months after the licence award and no later than 24 months from receipt of the concession. The minimum 5MHz guard band between the new licensed frequencies and existing GSM-1800 services. Bidders, bidding for the upcoming third mobile licence auction in the Kingdom are eligible to submit bids for the GSM-1800 guard band, but will be disqualified from acquiring the latter if their main bid is successful. The deadline for submitting the bid is1 December. It is anticipated that the regulator will announce a winner on 4 January 2009 and licence will be granted on 5th February.

   

TRA proposes MNP (Bahrain)

  • October 20th, 2008
  • 6:21 am

Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (TRA) is planning to bring number portability closer to its subscribers. TRA has issued a public consultation document on the issue, inviting comments and responses from interested parties. With the facility of number of portability the consumers will be able to move their numbers to another operator providing similar services, in other words, mobile-to-mobile and fixed-to-fixed. This requires all licensed operators to allow numbers to be transferred between operators through the establishment of a central database.

TRA’s General Director, Alan Horne said, “Number portability is another strategic milestone in the liberalisation of Bahrain’s telecommunications industry and will empower consumers with more choice and freedom to select any operator for their fixed or mobile services.”

This will encourage operators to improve their services to retain their customers.

The draft regulation on number portability was the result of several months of work, and close collaboration with the industry. We encourage all interested parties to comment on the draft regulation, said TRA  ’s ICT Operations Manager Ahmed Aldoseri.

“If a consumer decides to move their number to another operator, the older operator is barred from engaging in any direct activity to persuade the consumer from moving on. We want to make sure that operators take care of all their customers all the time and not only when they make a decision to move,” Aldoseri added.

Four firms show interest in Bahrain’s third mobile licence

  • October 16th, 2008
  • 10:13 am

Four companies have shown interest in Bahrain’s third mobile licence, which was observed at the closure of the bid by TRA. “Given the economic climate, we are pleased at the level of interest in the third mobile licence. Indications are that registered bidders will bring a combination of international and local expertise,” said Alan Horner, TRA’s general director.
The registered company will their financial bids on 13 November, with the names of those that qualify to be announced on 18 November. The winner to which TRA will announce by early December.

   

Four bidders chase third mobile licence (UAE)

  • October 15th, 2008
  • 8:34 am

With the closure of bidder registration for third mobile licence, TRA proclaimed that 4 companies have applied for the third mobile licence auction. General Director of TRA, Alan Horne, said, “Given the economic climate we are pleased at the level of interest in the third mobile licence. Indications are that registered bidders will bring a combination of international and local expertise.”
“In the interest of transparency and in line with the international best practice for a competitive auction process, TRA has put in place auction rules designed to protect the confidential information of  the bidders and to avoid unfair practices. Accordingly we are announcing the number of the registered companies for the third mobile licence auction. Only registered companies will be able to submit bids and the names of qualified bidders will be announced on November 18,” said TRA Director of Market and Competition, Rob Middlehurst. TRA is aiming to open the financial bids of the qualified bidders and announce the winner in early December in a public meeting.

UAE regulator allows mobile operators to slash tariffs

  • October 13th, 2008
  • 6:51 am

The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, UAE, allows country’s mobile operators can slash their tariffs in order to face the competition.
According to TRA Director-General Mohamed Nasser Al Ghanim, “The TRA has made several improvements to its Price Control Regulatory Policy and Procedure. Now, the service providers can request a fast track review of certain prices to enable them to react to rapidly changing market demands. Bringing new prices to the market faster facilitates telecommunication services at optimally competitive prices.”

Bahrain eyes an international operator for the third mobile licence (Bahrain)

  • September 17th, 2008
  • 8:51 am

Bahrain’s TRA sets November 13 as the last date for the companies to bid for the third mobile licence.
“TRA expects the winning bidder to be an experienced international player capable of offering innovative and affordable mobile services, to strengthen competition in Bahrain and deliver tangible socio-economic benefits to the Kingdom,” said Alan Horne, TRA’s general director.
According to Rob Middlehurst, TRA’s director of market and competition, the auction will be a multi-stage process with the final stage being the financial rounds exclusively for suitably qualified bidders.
Six firms, as of now, have shown interest in the licence bid, which according to TRA were a mixture of local and international operators.

   

TRA launches a public consultation for mobile television (Oman)

  • August 26th, 2008
  • 1:09 pm

According to a media report, Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) of Oman has launched a public consultation on the topic of mobile television. Regulator will be seeking opinion on several issues relating to the introduction of mobile TV, such as reception types, business model options that would provide the best services to the society, operators’ interest, and spectrum allocation and assignment. TRA invites all the interested parties to express their opinion on the consultation document published in the local newspapers, as well as the authority’s website. 22 september is the deadline for the consultation response.