Doha: The Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA) resolved 92 percent of telecom consumers’ complaints received in 2018. CRA engaged with telecom service providers to resolve and discuss solutions for all the complaints, which were related to several topics such as billing, weak mobile network coverage, weak Internet speed, fixed-line disconnection and delays in service installation and activation.
CRA received 4,342 inquiries and 1,005 complaints from consumers about telecom services in Qatar, these complaints were evaluated by CRA based on a set of criteria to determine their validity to CRA’s complaint process; 603 were valid complaints and 402 were invalid, and CRA resolved 92 percent of the total complaints. CRA is working with the service providers to finalize the related investigation of the remaining ones and expects to resolve them during the coming weeks.
“CRA ensures that telecom consumers are aware of their rights and responsibilities; to this end, CRA provides them with related awareness tips through social media and outreach events to ensure that they have the best experience with telecom services. On the other hand, CRA works to resolve consumers’ complaints based on the Telecommunications Law, Telecom Consumer Protection Policy and a set of regulations, developed to ensure the provision of smart, innovative and high-quality services to the consumers in Qatar,” said Amel Salem Al Hanawi, Consumer Affairs Manager, CRA.
The statistics indicate that 68 percent of all complaints were related to mobile services; 47 percent of mobile services complaints were related to billing issues including excess billing for postpaid services, and uncased decrease in the credit balance for prepaid services. Service disconnections complaints were 11 percent out of the mobile complaints and weak mobile network coverage complaints for both indoor and outdoor were 8 percent out of it.
As for fixed-line services, the statistics indicate that it was 32 percent of the total complaints; out of these complaints 36 percent were related to service disconnections, while 35 percent related to billing, 15 percent related to delay in fixed-line service transfer, installation or activation, and 5 percent were related to slow Internet speed.
