Muscat, The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) held a workshop with members of the State Council and Majlis A’Shura to discuss a draft document on regulating the rights of communication service beneficiaries.

The workshop aims to regulate the relationship between beneficiaries and communication service providers and raise awareness about the obligations of all relevant parties.

The workshop highlighted the challenges posed to beneficiaries, particularly the high cost of international roaming service bills, advertising and promotional messages, subscription and renewal of services.

The workshop covered 12 topics on basic obligations of parties to contracts, including service quality, billing, the beneficiary’s right to privacy and confidentiality of information and the protection of children who benefit from communication services.

The participants discussed rectifications leading to improvement of beneficiary experience, like cutting down the period of petition settlement from 15 working days to 5 and shrinking the overdue bill payment period from 15 years to 2.

The workshop recommended total cancellation of monthly subscription in case of disruption of service whose repair exceeds 7 days and compelling the service provider to abide by the agreed warranty ceiling, so that any additional pending sums could be cancelled, except in special cases.

This is in addition to imposing fines on service providers in case it is proved the service provider failed to comply with the provision of the draft regulation.

The workshop is a link in a chain of steps to devise legal and regulatory frameworks that respond to the interests of beneficiaries and consolidate their confidence in services offered within the sector.

The workshop was attended by representatives of telecommunication firms and academics from Sultan Qaboos University.

Source: Oman News Agency