Qatar’s leading telecom provider has doubled the cost of transferring Hala credit from user to user, now charging QR1 instead of QR.50 for the service.

The change takes effect today, Ooredoo said in an SMS to users this morning.

In a statement to Doha News, the company explained that it was increasing the rate for the first time in 10 years to “maintain quality of service.”

But the company stressed that its newly revamped app should make it easier for Ooredoo users to top up credit by themselves, and thus not require transfers.

It added: “And to make sure that one is never caught short without credit, they can check their balance at any time on the Ooredoo App or by dialing *129#.”

Raising prices

While the credit transfer hike affects Hala pre-paid users, Ooredoo’s post-paid Shahry customers also saw price increases earlier this year.

In March, the company increased the cost of a long-distance call for some mobile customers by 50 percent.

At the time, a spokesperson told Doha News that the change was necessary due to a rise in global interconnect costs – the price a carrier pays to transfer its customer’s call to another national telecom network.

It’s been a challenging year for both Ooredoo and competitor Vodafone Qatar.

Both are seeing profit growth slow down, according to Qatar’s Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA), and have attempted to cut costs through layoffs.

They have both also had executive shakeups.

Thoughts?