In light of the growth of ‘gate-to-gate’ connectivity worldwide, The Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA) launched a public consultation with revisions to the Class License for the Provision of Public Telecommunication Services on-board aircraft.
Interested stakeholders have until December 10, 2017 to comment on the proposed changes published on the CRA website.
The current class license, issued in March 2014, authorises operators of aircraft registered in Qatar to provide public telecommunications services; Internet access, GSM mobile voice calls, SMS and mobile data accessed via satellite roaming services, but only when the aircraft is flying at, at least, 3,000 metres above sea level.
This has successfully been operated without causing harmful interference to either aircraft operations or terrestrial commercial wireless networks for number of years.
The modifications to the Class License will enable authorised aircraft operators to provide connectivity Wi-Fi Internet access below 3,000 metres.
Testing has shown that this can happen without causing harmful interference to either aircraft operations or terrestrial commercial wireless networks.
CRA published the consultation document to know the views of telecommunications service providers, key stakeholders and other interested parties about whether the amendments should be applied to the provision of on-board Internet services below 3,000 metres and whether they should also be extended to include GSM mobile voice and data services.
The proposed modifications to the Class License are available at this link http://www.cra.gov.qa/en/document/consultation-review-class-license-provision-public telecommunication-services-board and the instructions on how to respond can be found in section 2 of the document titled: “Instruction for responding to this consultation.”
