By A Staff Reporter - MUSCAT — The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) concluded yesterday its awareness campaign programme launched as part of its annual participation in Salalah Tourism Festival 2010. During its participation in the annual gala which lasted for 15 days, the authority successfully held a nationwide daily competition. Daily quiz questions were publicised through Khareef Salalah TV programme Rathath, aired on Oman TV.
The objective of the daily TV competition was to enhance the general public knowledge on matters related to TRA’s domain and the services provided by the telecom sector in general. TRA’s daily contest drew a large number of participants with an average of around 1,500 participants on daily basis.
The authority campaign also included 15-day awareness campaign on two radio channels; Al Shabab Radio FM Channel and Al Wisal FM. The TRA radio campaign consisted of three awareness messages on ways of dealing with hoax telephone calls and messages, the consumer’s responsibility towards their telephone numbers, and safety of Internet connections.
A number of the authority’s employees and technical staff also were present at TRA’s stall at the Municipality Recreational Centre venue to attend queries and to interact with the public directly.
Highlighting on TRA’s keenness to interact with the users of the telecom services in the Sultanate, Zainab al Farsi, Specialist at the Technical Affairs Unit at TRA said; “the objective of TRA’s presence at the festival ground on a daily basis during its participation is to hold direct communication with the general public and attend their quires related to TRA’s domain. This year, the public demonstrated great interest in issues related to the theme of our participation at the festival and we are pleased with the results.”
TRA also distributed several awareness-raising publications on various matters related to the telecom sector including; Consumer Guider, I Have a Compliant, My Mobile Number is my Responsibility, Unwanted Calls, Safety Measures in Using Registered Internet Connections, and TRA’s Message Against Spamming.
Commenting on TRA’s message against spamming, Tahir al Ibrahim, senior specialist at the Legal Affairs Unit said, “The authority launched its campaign against spamming in April 2010. We are pleased to announce that since then, it drew massive interest of the IT users throughout the Sultanate. Those who visited the TRA stall at the Municipality Recreational Centre in the Governorate of Dhofar expressed their confidence in TRA initiative to fight SPAM and spammers.
Al Ibrahim added, “The publications which the TRA started to distribute at Comex 2010 in Muscat contain considerable information in educating IT users on the characteristics and elements of SPAM messages which they receive through their e-mails and mobile phones via SMS/MMS. Further to that, TRA’s publications include other information related to protection methods. Through this campaign the TRA calls upon all IT users in the Sultanate to join the Authority’s fight against SPAM and spammers.”
It is noteworthy that TRA’s awareness campaign programme was also conducted in co-operation with local newspapers.