In light of the increasing pace of competition in the telecommunications sector and efforts of telecommunications operators to provide best and latest services, the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) of Bahrain is conducting a comprehensive review of the current schedule of fees issued in 2010.

The aim of the move is to allow licensed operators to efficiently provide public and private telecommunications services which benefit consumers, reported the Gulf Daily News, our sister publication.

The TRA has issued a public consultation document on the review of the current schedule of fees for licensees.

TRA general director Mohamed Bubashait said the telecommunications sector plays a key role in the progress of the national economy.

'In order to support the growth of this sector, TRA has embarked on studying the possibility of updating the current schedule of fees to reach a positive balance that contributes to the increased growth of the sector and supports continuity of positive competition as well as meets consumer needs of modern and advanced services at competitive prices.'

TRA, in collaboration with the Directorate of Wireless Licensing, Frequency and Monitoring, conducted a review of the annual frequency fees for private licensees and included the fees in the same proposed schedule published on the TRA's website.

TRA technical and operations director Mohamed Alnoaimi said the review is intended to adopt an equitable pricing mechanism for telecommunications licence application fee, gross annual turnover-based fee, annual frequency licence fees, numbering fees, type approval fees and introduce new structures for domain name fees, application fee for interference investigation and fees for radio communication station (mast and towers).'

The TRA invites interested parties to submit written comments with regard to the issues addressed in the consultation document published on TRA's website, to sof@tra.org.bh. The TRA welcomes comments and responses to the specific numbered questions set out in the consultation document, the report said. – TradeArabia News Service