The Bahrain Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) recently conducted an extensive exercise to update its list of licensees.  

The telecom watchdog had noticed that a number of licensees had their CR status with the Ministry of Industry and Commerce to be revoked or have not been renewed.

"In terms of the telecommunications law, a valid CR status is an essential pre-requisite not just for the attainment of a telecom licence but also for the maintaining of that licence.  As a consequence the authority has commenced the process to revoke such licences," remarked TRA’s acting director of technical and operations Mohammed Alnoaimi.

"The authority is keen on reviewing its regulations and framework based on a number of principles, including the protection of consumers and promotion of competition as it continuously following up and reviewing the licenses granted aiming at efficiently regulating the telecommunications market and improving and developing its position to foster social and economic growth and ensure that consumers’ aspirations and expectations within this environment are met," he stated

According to TRA, a number of licensees were also not active in the market.

"A telecommunications license is not a commodity but a privilege which in turn grants rights and imposes obligations.  It is important to ensure that an entity does not hold on to that privilege without exercising it," Alnoaimi stated.

In view of this, entities falling within this category will also be the subject of license revocation procedures. The Authority would be continuing this exercise on a periodic manner to make sure that the list of licensees is current and valid, he added.-TradeArabia News Service