ICT
From The Report: Bahrain 2017
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Bahrain now has a solid telecoms market with customers benefitting from a diverse array of services and increasingly competitive rates. The 2014 World Bank “Broadband Networks in the Middle East and North Africa” report singled out Bahrain as having the only mature broadband market in the MENA region, as well as being one of only two countries in the region to have a fully open telecoms market. The ICT sector, meanwhile, now forms a major pillar of Bahrain’s economy, and also one of the core sectors Bahrain is focused on developing, both to attract direct foreign investment and to grow human resources to help propel Bahrain as a regional ICT centre. Recent years have seen a significant expansion in the ICT landscape, as well as a push towards cutting edge technologies. The country’s fourth National Telecommunications Plan, which was released in early 2016, is a further example of the government’s strategic goals and planning when it comes to the sector.

Articles from this Chapter

Overview

At the forefront: Developments in key infrastructure and a tech-savvy population bode well for telecoms companies
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Bahrain’s involvement in telecoms goes all the way back to the mid-19th century when the island became a way station for the telegraph cable linking India and Europe. The kingdom was also the first country in the Middle East to launch internet services in 1995, and was the first country in the GCC region to liberalise and open up its ICT sector to investment. Bahrain now has a solid telecoms market with customers benefitting from a diverse array of services and increasingly competitive…

Overview

Core sector: Major developments are helping to establish the country as a regional ICT centre
OBG
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The ICT sector in Bahrain is now a major pillar of the economy, and also one of the core sectors Bahrain is focused on developing, both to attract direct foreign investment but also to grow human resources and help propel Bahrain as a regional ICT centre. Recent years have seen a significant expansion in the ICT landscape, as well as a push towards cutting edge technologies. The country’s fourth National Telecommunication Plan, which was released in early 2016, is a further example of the…

Analysis

Plan of action: The fourth National Telecommunication Plan (NTP) explained
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In May 2016 Bahrain approved its fourth NTP, which mapped out key targets for the upcoming three-year period. The national plan, which succeeds the third NTP, released in 2012, calls for, among other things, 95% of all households and 100% of all businesses and public radio communication stations in the kingdom to have access to affordable, reliable and secure ultra-fast broadband services, with a downstream data rate of at least 100 Mbps for households and 1 Gbps for businesses and radio…