February 2016 53 www.bahrainthismonth.com telecomreview The telecommunications industry is one of the economy’s most active sectors thanks to a diverse number of products, carriers and services – including smartphones, smartwatches and even smarter promotions. With a number of mobile phone operators in the Kingdom, the scope and shape of competition is intensifying as consumers look to take advantage of greater choice and better service offerings. The quality of market share is expected to become more important as operators, in both the fixed line and mobile markets, pay attention to both their revenue and net income lines and margins. Bahrain’s telecom market has seen a number of changes take place over 2015 and 2016 is set to continue this trend as leading operators vie for new customers while aiming to keep existing ones happy. From the newest devices across a number of platforms to additional value-added packages, this year is looking promising for tech fans and businesses in the Kingdom. Towards the end of last year, Batelco launched a range of backup options for fixed services. To maintain business efficiency at a low cost, it is offering data backup solutions over its 4G LTE network for businesses. It provides business customers from all industries with 4G LTE backup connectivity for data services such as MPLS, Inet Dedicated and Global MPLS. VIVA Bahrain recently entered into collaboration with Avaya – a business communications software, systems and service provider – to offer Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) for businesses across the island. The operator said it will host Avaya’s innovative unified communications, video and contact centre solutions and make them available to enterprises in a cloud services model, enabling the purchase of capacity and services as and when needed, without large upfront costs. Meanwhile, with a renewed focus on the prepaid youth market, Zain Bahrain believes its extensive array of data plans is just the ticket for 2016. The Dangerous Prepaid package was the first-of-its-kind in Bahrain and comes with a number of benefits including free calls to Batelco, VIVA and Zain and unlimited 4G data usage along with free international calls for a subscription fee of BD1 per week. The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Bahrain (TRA) has been hard at work and recently released its latest retail price benchmark study of telecommunications services in Arab countries. The study was commissioned by TRA on behalf of the Arab Regulators Group and it was undertaken by Strategy Analytics, an independent consulting firm that specialises in tariff comparisons. The study shows that the prices of telecommunications services in Bahrain continue to compare well with other GCC and Arab countries. Bahrain also improved during 2015 against developed countries that are members of the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), comparing well particularly for fixed broadband and mobile broadband prices, which are lower in Bahrain than the OECD average. The study also shows that the customers in Bahrain have benefited from a wide range of retail telecom services and more data at lower prices. For instance, mobile prices fell by up to 55 per cent and fixed broadband prices fell by up to 85 per cent between 2010 and 2015. The price of residential ADSL broadband with speeds up to 10Mbps reduced from BD80 in 2010 to BD20 in 2015, and the data allowance increased from 50GB to 150GB. Furthermore, the study shows that residential customers in Bahrain are starting to enjoy the benefits of ultra-fast broadband. The telecom sector in the Kingdom is incredibly diverse, with a number of different players vying for customers and an increased market share. Besides the aggressive release of next generation devices, many companies are also planning for the future. A recent report featuring Transportation and Telecommunications Minister, Kamal Ahmed, revealed plans for a National Broadband Network (NBN), which is set to revolutionise high-speed broadband in the Kingdom within a five-year timeframe. It will facilitate enhanced It’s Good to Talk
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