Communication services in Qatar ‘satisfactory’

A vast majority of business customers in Qatar are “generally satisfied” with the “quality” of communication services provided by their service provider in the country, shows a survey commissioned by the Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA).
The survey reveals that 91% of business customers in Qatar are “generally satisfied”.
The survey  indicates areas for improvement include levels of competition, choice of products, pricing and complaint resolution.
At the same time, more than half of business customers in Qatar have “perceived international roaming charges to be expensive, with 39% of the customers stating that international call charges were also high for mobile voice” .
“The business customer satisfaction survey, together with last year’s consumer satisfaction survey have become important tools for CRA to hear how consumers perceive communications services and we will continue such positive engagement,” said Amel Salem al-Hanawi, Consumer Affairs Department manager.
“The survey has highlighted business customers’ perceptions related to fixed-line services in Qatar. The CRA intends to delve deeper into this and other highlighted concerns and address these challenges. We have engaged with the service providers and I am pleased to say that both Ooredoo and Vodafone are being co-operative,” she added.
According to the CRA, the comprehensive research survey commissioned by CRA and conducted by market research firm AMRB evaluated business customers’ levels of satisfaction on the delivery of telecommunication services, prices charged, services provided and complaint resolution mechanisms, among others.
The CRA also said some 1,068 face-to-face interviews were conducted with key communications service users in both Arabic and English.
The survey findings, the CRA said, will be used to improve its business services and protect consumers. The full survey findings are available at http://cra.gov.qa/en.
The majority of business customers consider prices for communication services to be moderate to low, but a “sizeable” minority perceives some services as “highly priced” - mobile Internet (48%), fixed link (41%), mobile voice (32%), international mobile voice (39%), fixed Internet (31%) and fixed voice (31%).
The survey revealed that 14% of business customers believed there was “not enough competition” in the market, and 59% stated that there was ample choice of products and/or services.
“A main reason for business customers’ perceived lack of competition,” the survey said, is “Vodafone’s fixed-services being unavailable in large parts of the country.”
“Satisfaction with network coverage was high for mobile voice services (81%) compared against mobile Internet services (59%). By geographical area, satisfaction levels with the availability of fixed voice and Internet services hovers at a national average of 70% to 85%, with Al Dayyan and Umm Salal being relatively low in comparison,” the survey said.
“Complaints feature prominently, although varying across services, with mobile Internet users raising the highest number of complaints (41%) and mobile voice users the least (13%). Disconnection is the most common complaint across all services, followed by ‘network connectivity issues’ for mobile Internet and installation for fixed services. Some business customers were also dissatisfied with service providers’ complaints process, specifically the ease making contact to raise a complaint, ease of complaint resolution, and time taken to resolve a complaint,” it  said.
The survey also found that “business customers are satisfied when purchasing services but the time taken for activation is an area of concern for fixed link services, with 24% dissatisfied; majority of business consumers are satisfied with their rate-plan, 18% of fixed link and 11% of mobile Internet customers expressed dissatisfaction with the parameter ‘clear terms and conditions’”
It also found that 41% of business customers still preferred to receive bills in hard copy, likely due to accounting/auditing purposes.
“There is no discernible dissatisfaction with billing and payments, as long as service providers use traditional methods; and 75% of customers prefer calling their service provider’s call centre for complaints, resulting in dissatisfaction with the time taken to connect to the call centre agent, leading to an overall dissatisfaction with the complaint resolution process,” it said.