Bahrain TRA mandates operators to report on quality of service

On an ongoing basis, TRA conducts public consultations on critical issues, allowing the general public as well as operators to participate in the development of the sector and the rules and regulations that govern it. TRA issued last Thursday a regulation on Quality of Service following the completion of a public consultation.

This regulation obliges all licensed operators to measure and report the quality of services provided to subscribers.

The services to be measured for quality include fixed, mobile, internet and Directory Enquiries (DQ). The quality of service indicators include the number of consumer complaints (e.g. billing, faults and disconnection), the resolution time (e.g. time to repair) and time to answer calls e.g. DQ and fault reporting.

TRA's General Director Mr. Alan Horne said:

"TRA wishes to further empower subscribers to make informed decisions when choosing telecommunications services. We are issuing this regulation as a framework for quality of service obligations, and a mandate for operators to report on their quality of service provided to subscribers. This regulation will allow subscribers the opportunity to compare the performance of various operators when selecting services. The published information will also assist operators to benchmark their performance in the Kingdom's market."

TRA's Business Users and Residential Consumer Advisory Groups both welcomed the introduction of this regulation since it will provide them with qualitative and quantitative reports on the performance of the telecommunications service providers and assist to maximize subscriber benefits.