Providers of public Wi-Fi need to register details of users in Oman: TRA

Muscat: Under a new Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) decision, all establishments providing Wi-Fi services in public places should collect users’ identification details and maintain a database for at least three months.

In a statement, TRA said that “all companies/institutions that are concerned with the re-provision of Internet access service to their customers or visitors either through wireline or Wi-Fi in public places such as the waiting areas at airports, malls, hotels, clubs and other public places are required to register the users’ information as per Article 2 of TRA Decision 48/2016 issued on June 12”.

In a response to Muscat Daily, a TRA spokesperson said, “We would like to draw your attention to the fact that this is not a new regulation, but an amendment of older legislation published previously, specifically Decisions 11/2011 and 118/2011, with the aim to reduce the conditions and procedures required. If you were to conduct a comparison between Decision 48/2016 and Decisions 11/2011 and 118/2011 you will note that the restrictions have been greatly reduced.”

Regarding the provision of Wi-Fi in public places like hotels and malls, the Decision 48/2016 states in Article 2, “The re-provider of World Wide Web (Internet) access service in public places shall register the civil or passport number of the user indicating time and date of usage. Such registers shall be maintained for at least three months.”

Will this entail the adoption of a new system (software or hardware) by the providers of Internet services in public places?

The TRA official said, “Decision 48/2016 does not specify any type of system, software or hardware, and it is left to the entity providing this service to comply with this condition in the most suitable manner for its operations. With regards to, for instance, a hotel that provides Wi-Fi to its customers on its own Internet subscription, it is required to collect the customer details (ID/passport details) and save them for a minimum period of three months. Wi-Fi zone shouldn’t be left open for anyone to access without the required user details.”

In the case where the service provider is a licensed service operator like Omantel or Ooredoo there should not be an issue for the service provider to register the phone number as they already have a database of the customers’ information, the official added.