Position paper on IoT and M2M services in Qatar

The State of Qatar is one of the Arabic countries bordering the Persian Gulf. The capital Doha is home to >80% of the country's about 3 mill inhabitants. 
The national Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA) regulates the telecom-, IT- and postal sectors and also the access to digital media. CRA has just published a comprehensive Position Paper on IoT and M2M, outlining its vision for a “flexible and innovation-driven regulatory framework to support Qatar’s digital transformation and national development goals” (ref. Qatar National Vision 2030, the 3^rd National Development Strategy, and the Digital Agenda 2030).

Some of the key points in the Position Paper:

- Proposing a simplified IoT Service Approval scheme.
- All IoT/M2M devices intended for use in Qatar must obtain CRA Type Approval.
- CRA may reject non-compliant devices and reserves the right to block their operation.
- CRA will block inbound IoT devices from foreign networks after 90 days unless an agreement exists.
- Outbound roaming from Qatar is allowed for up to 30 days, with local data routing requirements.
- All IoT service providers must comply with Qatar Consumer Laws and cybersecurity protocols issued by the National Cyber 
  Security Agency (NCSA).
- Provisions for SIM registration flexibility for embedded IoT use cases.
- Encouragement of IPv6 and wholesale IoT connectivity models to foster competition.
- CRA emphasizes adherence to global IoT standards (e.g. IEC, ETSI, ITU, ISO).
- Promotion of open APIs, semantic interoperability, and middleware solutions to avoid vendor lock-in.

The CRA encourages all stakeholders, including manufacturers, network operators, and service providers to:

The Position Paper in full is available for downloading from this site

(This article is based on information provided by CERTA Global Consulting; edited by T.Sollie)