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 3rd 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:
- Review the IoT Position Paper.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)