The holiday season is here and people will now start going out of the country for vacations. One of the frequent complaints people talk about is the huge telephone bill they sometimes get due to roaming tariffs.

Qatar’s Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA) has issued some tips to travellers in order to help them avoid roaming bill shocks, reported Gulf Times.

The two service providers in Qatar — Ooredoo and Vodafone Qatar — have a diverse range of roaming packages and services to cater to a range of consumer requirements.

The CRA has advised telecom consumers to make sure they understand the service they want to use before subscribing to it, to verify if whether their service provider offers a roaming package in the destination country they intend to go to and to read terms and conditions related to the specific service they want to use and clearly understand the cost of it, reported The Peninsula.

The CRA also advises consumers to understand the activation process before they travel and if in doubt to contact their service provider to clarify and to activate the package before they reach their destination, because they may need to use roaming data to activate the package and could be charged ‘out of package’ for that if it’s not activated in advance.

Ooredoo’s pre-paid customers can activate Ooredoo passport by sending ‘OP’ as SMS to 121, or via Ooredoo mobile app. Post-paid customers can activate Ooredoo passport by sending ‘OP’ for weekly or ‘OPM’ for monthly plans as SMS to 114, or via the Ooredoo mobile app. 
Meanwhile, Vodafone Qatar’s pre-paid and post-paid customers can activate Vodafone passport by dialing *110*110#or via Vodafone mobile app, reported Qatar Tribune.
Bill shocks are often a result of using a non-partner network carrier in the destination country. Service providers have mechanisms in place to automatically connect consumers to their preferred network partner (If available).

Consumers should verify with their service providers whether to keep network selection manual or automatic. Consumers who have high-data usage should continually monitor their balance to avoid incurring high roaming costs outside of their package.

Service providers are obliged to provide consumers with notifications before the package ends or is consumed completely. Consumers should take advantage of such alerts and manage their roaming costs responsibility. 

* Ooredoo's pre-paid customers can check their balance for Ooredoo passport by sending ‘BAL OP’ as SMS to 121, or via Ooredoo mobile app.

* Ooredoo's post-paid customers can check their balance for Ooredoo passport, by sending ‘BAL OP’ for weekly and ‘BAL OPM’ for monthly packages as SMS to 114, or check via Ooredoo mobile app.

* Vodafone's Qatar pre-paid and post-paid customers can check their balance for Vodafone passport by dialling *129# or via Vodafone mobile app.

Notifications also help consumers to decide if they want to extend or stop roaming service after the expiry or over consumption of roaming data. If extension of a roaming service is required, consumers should check with their service provider regarding the process of adding more allowance.
If using a monthly roaming package, check with the service provider if the renewal is automatic and plan accordingly.

Finally, if consumers do not want to use roaming services while travelling, they should ensure to switch off their mobile roaming data option in the phone settings.