By: Amr Adel

Abu Dhabi – Mubasher: The UAE is planning to offer bundles for voice over internet protocol (VoIP) “soon”, director general of the UAE’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) Hamad Obaid Al Mansoori said late Wednesday.

Speaking on the sidelines of the 15th Meeting of the Arab Regulators Network (AREGNET) held in Abu Dhabi, Al Mansoori highlighted that these bundles will include calls via certain applications such as Whatsapp and Skype.

Companies looking to provide these services should coordinate with the UAE’s two telecom operators, Etisalat and du, he added.

We are also looking into lowering the prices of roaming services between Arab countries, the top official said during the event.

Al Mansoori revealed that a joint team was overseeing the study.

Once completed, the team will submit the study to the League of Arab Nation’s Arab Ministers of Telecommunications and Information to reach a final agreement that is binding to all parties in terms of price reductions and number of years required for implementation, he said..

This step follows a similar one undertaken by GCC member states in 2015, which entailed cutting roaming fees between the six GCC countries.

GCC mobile phone operators will continue to implement annual price reductions on a yearly basis starting 1 April throughout 2018, 2019, and 2020, after completing the required price cuts over the past two phases or in 2016 and 2017.

AREGNET was held in Abu Dhabi, the UAE between 18 and 20 September.

Translated by: Nada Adel Sobhi