The Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA) yesterday issued a Class Licence for Wireless Home Area Networks (WHANs).
The licence relates to wireless networks that facilitate communication between a group of devices and equipment inside or near home.
Under the licence, licencees will be entitled to import and operate wireless networks in their homes, in frequencies or frequency bands that are defined in the licence, and for various applications defined for home use, by using the technologies specified in the licence and in accordance with the standard specifications and related technical requirements.
Devices and equipment that are covered in the licence include, but are not limited to, clock devices, speakers and home theatre systems, lighting control systems, doorbell control systems, security cameras and monitoring systems, window and window blinds systems, cooling, air-conditioning and water heating systems inside the home, kitchen appliances, meter reading systems, and many other devices and equipment.
The issuance of the class licence is part of the CRA’s efforts to develop its regulatory framework, where the Authority aims to encourage the introduction of advanced Information and Communications Technology to meet the needs of customers and the public.
The CRA published last year a public consultation on the draft class licence for WHANs, and received responses from stakeholders and several international companies, who deal with WHANs technologies and its related standard specifications and subsequently took into consideration the related submissions that are in line with the standard specifications adopted by the CRA and serve the development of this type of technology in Qatar.
CRA president Mohamed Ali al-Mannai said: “We are pleased to develop this class licence for WHANs as a new regulatory instrument. This, for sure, will provide the additional capabilities required to improve the quality of life inside the home in a variety of ways.
“There are many wireless devices and equipment inside each home, and these devices often gain enhanced emergent capabilities through their ability to interact, and therefore these capabilities can be used to improve personal productivity, automate repetitive tasks, enhance home security, and ease access to entertainment.”
He added: “I would like to thank all the stakeholders and international companies for their submissions as responses to the CRA public consultation. It was a pleasure to see the interest from many partners on CRA’s regulatory instruments. We highly value the comments and views and believe that they will benefit the industry and the end users of these technologies as well.
“WHANs technologies are part of the future strategies for smart buildings and smart cities and CRA is looking forward to support those strategies by developing future regulatory instruments to facilitate the adoption of these technologies in Qatar to be among the first countries to deploy it.”
