Telecom revenue touches BD450m

Manama : Bahrain’s telecom industry has become more attractive and competitive, with consumers reaping full benefits with better service and cheaper rates, as the revenues continue to rise, a report said. 

According to the latest annual market indicators report by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, Bahrain’s telecom revenues rose to BD450 million in 2015 from BD430m in 2014, which also represents 4 per cent of the Kingdom’s GDP. 

This, according to the report, has resulted in an increased market penetration, which translates to increased competition and reduced service cost. Licensed revenue, however, reported a drop of 5pc to BD363m in 2015 from BD383m in 2014. Unlicensed revenues (from handset devices) increased by 88pc to BD87.5m in 2015 from BD47m in 2014, thanks to hyper-competition and pressure on prices and profitability.  

Fixed telephone services have become less attractive, with the sector getting outpaced by mobile service providers, who offer better quality and cost effectiveness. Outgoing traffic from mobile to fixed representing only 3% out of total domestic minutes. 

In the third quarter of 2016, there were 241,000 fixed telephony subscriptions compared to 242,000 subscriptions in 2015 and 247,000 subscriptions in 2014; which is a decrease of 2.4pc since 2014, the report said.  This was reflected in the yearly revenue of fixed telephony as it dropped by a million Bahraini Dinars between 2015 (13m) and 2014 (12m). 

In mobile, the report pointed out that there is a 5pc increase in off-network traffic between 2014 and 2015 due to free off-net offers by operators, allowing consumers to call outside of their service provider’s network to other networks.

Broadband jumps

Broadband subscription and penetration has continued to increase rapidly over the last year as it reached 2.3m subscriptions with 164pc penetration at the end of quarter three,  2016, comparing to 2 million subscriptions with 145pc penetration at the end of 2015.  

The number of fixed broadband subscriptions reached 78,000 at the end of quarter three, 2016 comparing to 72,800 in 2015 and 58,500 in 2014.

At the end of 2015, 83pc of broadband subscribers were on plans with advertised speeds of 2Mbps and above comparing to 72pc in 2014 and only 15pc in 2010. 

Usage doubles

The yearly usage of Mobile broadband doubled between 2014 and 2015 from 61,000 terabytes to 121,000 terabytes; mainly due to increasing usage of different applications and additional free data offered by mobile operators. 

Fibre optics 

Fibre optics network services are increasingly becoming the most popular technology for reliable and fast data transmission over long distances.