GCC data roaming rates slashed

Mamama : As part of the collaboration with the GCC countries, the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) Bahrain has announced further price reductions on roaming rates as of April 1. 

This marks the second year of price reductions, and will continue with further reductions every year until 2020, it was revealed. 

“91 million mobile users in the GCC will be able to take advantage of the new price caps and due credit goes to the effort, vision and collaboration of the GCC countries through the GCC Council’s collaborative work and our counterparts in the regulatory field,” Deputy General Director of TRA, Sheikh Nasser Bin Mohamed Al Khalifa said. 

“The price consumers used to pay for roaming services tended to be relatively high and this roaming regulation is key to realising a solution. Through the success of this initiative, GCC citizens can now enjoy more welfare. This will continue to improve in the years to come as we establish a mature and more competitive telecoms environment.”

 In 2016 the cost of international calls made from within the GCC cost 241 fils per minute while in 2017 this was reduced to 233 fils. National calls made within the GCC used to cost 98 fils per min which went down to 94 fils. SMS messages used to cost 30 fils last year compared to 26 fils per message in 2017. Data roaming rates in 2016 used to cost 489 fils per megabyte which was reduced to 320 fils.