Seef District: The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) has initiated an investigation of 12 complaints regarding mobile international roaming bills which have shocked consumers with a total value of around BD 30,000.
“During the first quarter of this year , not only did we notice an increase in the number of consumer complaints related to roaming cases, but also an increase in the amounts being billed to consumers as a result of using mobile roaming. One of the cases that is being currently investigated has a value of BD 12,800,” TRA’s Director of Consumer Affairs Shaikh Abdulla bin Humood Al Khalifa said.
“During separate meetings late last year, TRA urged the three mobile telecommunications service providers to take voluntary actions regarding the roaming bill shocks such as establishing a maximum threshold to trigger warnings, and to adopt risk management measures such as suspending the mobile services when an agreed limit is reached,” Shaikh Abdulla, added.
“It is completely unacceptable and unfair that consumers do not receive the adequate level of transparency regarding the cost and volume of their usage of mobile roaming services. We are putting all of our efforts to resolve those cases in hand and studying the implementation of additional regulatory measures to ensure that consumers are notified when they’re about to reach their limits to prevent them from incurring additional charges.”
It is important to remind consumers of some important steps to avoid potential bill shocks and enable them to make wise decisions when using mobile roaming services and minimize roaming charges.