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Bahrain - Market Intelligence Report
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Market Intelligence Reports provide an invaluable mix of vital market data and background information, including telecoms regulation. Bahrain's telecommunications market was fully opened to competition at the beginning of July 2004, when the new independent regulator - the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) - made available the first alternative national and international fixed-line services licences. While several companies have obtained these licences, few have yet to build their own networks or offer services. Consequently, incumbent state-controlled fixed-line operator, Bahrain Telecommunications Company (Batelco), can be said have accounted for virtually 100% of all fixed lines in Bahrain at the time of writing. Bahrain is a small country, with no more than 450,000 permanent residents and as many as 250,000 short-term foreign workers staying in the country at any one time. These transitory workers invariably favour mobile phones over fixed lines. Thus, the official penetration rate for fixed lines is artificially low at around 26%, while the penetration rate for mobile phones is artificially high at around 102%. The number of fixed-lines in service showed its first significant decline in June 2005, a trend that continued throughout much of the rest of the year and into 2006. This may be a short-term blip, as the number of fixed-lines is expected to continue to rise due to the acceleration of Batelco's 'Broadband Bahrain' initiative, which should migrate the national telephone system to an advanced next-generation IP-enabled platform. While Batelco currently has little or no competition in the fixed-line market, it is now facing competition in the mobile market in the form of Kuwait-based MTC-Vodafone, whose local subsidiary launched its GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS network in late-December 2003 and had reduced Batelco's share of the mobile market to under 70% by the end of 2006. One or more mobile operators may be licensed in the near future as a result of the authorities' review of the country's spectrum resources in 2006, while mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) are now being encouraged into the market.
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