October 22, 2010

Mrs. Mahassen Ajam, Board Member and Head of Information and Consumer Affairs Unit at the TRA, participated in " Gitex Technology Week 2010" that took place in Dubai from October 17 to October 21, 2010.

The "GITEX Technology Week" is one of the largest and most important exhibitions in the world that tackles the information technology and communications sector, involving more than 3500 companies from 65 countries, each seeking to showcase their latest products to about 130 000 expected visitors including specialists, traders and high level stakeholders.

The GITEX Global Conference provided a series of discussion panels with local and international industry experts. Mrs. Ajam participated in the "Consumer Protection” panel designated to highlight the importance of the role of regulators in protecting consumers and the steps and procedures that must be taken in this regard. This panel took place in the "Gulfcoms" exhibition which was held within the "GITEX Technology Week 2010" activities.

Mrs. Ajam highlighted the Authority’s prerogatives by virtue of Telecom Law 431 in issuing the Consumer Affairs Regulation and the Code of Practice for value-added services and explained the reasons behind the hindrances of the implementation of these regulations.

Mrs. Ajam also briefed the attendees about the cooperation between the Authority and the Ministry of Economy and Trade to share the 1739 hotline to receive telecom consumer complaints, and mentioned that the number of received complaints remains very low due to the lack of human and financial resources necessary to create awareness among consumers.

The panel also addressed the most important threats to consumers faced today, such as the invasion of privacy, the deterioration of the quality of service and the limited choices especially in the available market of fixed and mobile services.

Finally, Mrs. Ajam praised the service providers’ positive collaboration with the authority in terms of handling consumer complaints despite the non yet applicable related regulations whereby the liberalization process is halted and the fixed and mobile operators are still owned by the public sector.