In a step to achieve transparency in its operations and processes, the Bahrain Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) has issued a public consultation on the potential regulation of wholesale international inbound calls.

Wholesale international inbound calls are supplied by licensed operators in Bahrain to foreign telecommunications operators to enable the completion of international telephone calls to subscribers in Bahrain.

In recent years, wholesale international charges for these services have been falling, reducing the cost for foreign operators to supply international calls into Bahrain.

However, it appears that these cost reductions have not been passed through by other GCC operators into their retail call charges.

As a result, end users in Bahrain have not benefited from lower costs of being called.

The TRA therefore proposes to establish minimum price floors for wholesale international inbound services supplied by licensed operators in Bahrain to GCC operators. The authority is inviting interested parties to provide submissions by February 23.-TradeArabia News Service