Annual Report 2008 - TRA - Telecommunication Regulatory Authority

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Building a Competitive Market TRA Annual Report 2008 19 TRA Awards the third mobile licence to Saudi Telecommunications Company (STC) Local Loop Unbundling This measure from the review was designed to give Batelco’s competitors access to services in the final part of Batelco’s fixed network - between local exchanges and the customer’s premises. This would enable competitors to provide a range of high speed broadband retail services to customers. The wholesale local loop services would be available to competing licensed operators as part of the existing package of services in Batelco’s Reference Offer (see below). In August TRA invited consultancy firms to submit proposals for achieving Local Loop Unbundling (LLU). On 3 November TRA announced that it had appointed TERA Consultants to work closely with TRA and the telecommunications industry in developing the approach to LLU, enabling competitive services in the local loop. This work was continuing at the end of the year. Competition guidelines The development of competition guidelines supported the move towards a more competitive environment, enabling regulation to better reflect market conditions and underpinning an open competitive market working on fair terms for both suppliers and consumers. The removal of tariff approval requirements for mobile and some international services and the entry of a third mobile network were expected to boost competition in the market. However, this was likely to bring an increase in the number of complaints about anticompetitive behaviour. The competition guidelines aimed to give clarity on what practices might be deemed anticompetitive and how TRA would deal with allegations of such practices. TRA published draft competition guidelines for public consultation on 5 November. These refreshed TRA’s approach to defining the market and assessing competition. In addition to giving guidance on anticompetitive practices, the draft also included a detailed template for lodging complaints. This consultation was ongoing at the end of the year. Number portability As surveys in 2007 revealed, many consumers were deterred from choosing to move to another operator by not being able to take their number with them. In the survey, for example, 93 per cent of business users said that keeping their number was important and over one third said this was the main reason why they would not change. As a first step towards removing this barrier, in March TRA announced a tender to appoint a consultant to identify the best and most cost-effective methodology for implementing number portability. Interested parties were invited to submit their bids by the end of March. TRA completed its evaluation of the bids in April and in June the consortium Mott MacDonald and Horrocks Technology began work on the project. Meanwhile TRA set up an industry working group on the implementation of number portability to ensure that local operators were fully engaged in the process. This met for the first time on 26 May.
20 TRA Annual Report 2008 Building a Competitive Market On 19 October TRA issued a consultation document proposing that, through the establishment of a central database, all licensed operators would be required to allow customers to transfer their numbers to other operators. Number portability would be available to both mobile and fixed line customers. No operator would be allowed to engage in any direct activity to dissuade a customer from moving. There were two main aims of these proposals. First consumers would be empowered to exercise free choice to select any operator for their fixed or mobile service. And second it would encourage operators to improve their services in order to keep their customers. National Numbering Plan The way numbers are used and allocated to operators can either support or be a barrier to innovative and competitive telecommunications services. The National Numbering Plan therefore needs to keep pace with technological change, the evolution of new services and increasing competition. In June TRA issued a revised Plan for public comment. Following this consultation and a series of workshops with the industry, the updated National Numbering Plan was released and from 18 September TRA began accepting applications for new number ranges. Among other changes, the Plan opened up new number ranges in a technologically neutral manner for operators offering services over fixed and mobile networks, and for services using technologies such as Voice over Internet Protocols (VoIP). The new number ranges, in effect, are for use by operators offering any service over any technology. The Plan was designed to be forward looking, to accommodate not only existing, but also future technologies, and to provide a migration path to the fully converged telecommunications environment that lies ahead. TRA also ensured that numbers continued to give consumers an indication, by looking at the first two digits, of the level of charge they are likely to incur - for example freephone, national call rates or premium charges for information type services. Emergency service short codes were also extended to support new Government initiatives on routing emergency calls direct to specialist agencies such as the Coastguard. The revised Plan also introduced a new series of short codes, at varying rates, for calls to information services, taxi companies, restaurants and similar operations. Spectrum issues National Spectrum Planning and Allocation Policy In April TRA brought together organisations concerned with the planning and allocation of radio frequency spectrum in the Kingdom. Representatives attended from the Ministry of the Interior, the Bahrain Defence Force, Civil Aviation Affairs, Bahrain TV Corporation and the General Organisation of Seaports. The aim was to extend the National Spectrum Planning and Allocation Policy beyond telecommunications spectrum usage only and so ensure the efficient use of radio frequency, with reduced risk of interference between user groups including from nearby countries. TRA had recognised the need to balance the requirements of the different user groups in the policy and to support the development of security, social, economic and safety activities in the Kingdom. Earlier in the year consultants InterConnect Communication (ICC) had been appointed to develop the policy and, at the meeting in April, they presented an assessment of the current situation and their recommendations for the future. In October, the Minister responsible for the telecommunications sector issued a resolution to establish a permanent Spectrum Strategy and Coordination Committee (SSCC). The committee aims to facilitate the coordination of spectrum requirements and to support the development and maintenance of the National Frequency Plan for all radio spectrum resources in the Kingdom. SSCC is chaired by Sheikh Salman bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, Director General of Information Technology at the Central Informatics Organisation. The other nine members represent the different sectors that are major users of spectrum:
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