 Bahrain - Telecoms, Mobile & Broadband
Executive summary
BuddeComm's annual publication, Bahrain - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband, provides a comprehensive overview of the trends and developments in the telecommunications and digital media markets in Bahrain.
Bahrain is the smallest market in the Middle East by population size but it is also one of the most competitive. It was early to liberalise its market and has a well-established regulatory authority. It is also one of the better-documented markets in the region.
Incumbent Batelco shares the fixed-line market with thirteen other operators providing international calling services using international direct dial, carrier pre-selection or prepaid calling cards. Infrastructure is excellent - Batelco completed the rollout of a Next Generation Network in January 2009. Around 50% of international call minutes originating from fixed lines use prepaid calling cards. Average revenue per minute fell by nearly half over the two years to 2007. Like other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, Bahrain has a large expat population (approximately 50% of the total) and this has been the cause of the impact of prepaid VoIP-based calling cards on the market and on Batelco's international call revenues.
Competition also exists in the broadband market but Batelco has a stronger grip in the sector with around 80% of the retail broadband market. Alternative operators are competing using WiMAX, with subscriber numbers growing strongly in 2008 to reach around 15% market share of the broadband market. Mobile broadband has a similar market share. In mid-2009 Batelco introduced free data roaming for its mobile broadband customers across the GCC, Egypt, Jordan and Yemen.
Batelco and a subsidiary of Zain of Kuwait share the mobile sector, with approximately equal shares of the GSM market. Zain however has a 77% share of the 3G market. A third mobile licence was awarded in January 2009 to STC of Saudi Arabia, the only bidder, with bid of US$231 million and a promise to give 1% of turnover to social development and to set up a US$300 million venture capital fund to develop ICT business in Bahrain and the region.
With mobile penetration apparently well on the way to 200%, there would appear to be little room for a third competitor. As with other high-expat markets however, the population turnover gives room for growth. It was also thought that STC was particularly interested in buying the licence as a defensive move in its home market to prevent the loss of customers to Zain, now operating in both markets, amongst the many subscribers who travel back and forth on the causeway between Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.
With competition strong in its home market, Batelco as with other operators in the region has ventured abroad to less developed markets in search of profits - although not on the scale of Zain or Etisalat of the UAE. Batelco has subsidiaries in Kuwait, Jordan, Yemen and Saudi Arabia and in January 2009 agreed to buy a 49% share in S Tel, a recently established Indian mobile operator, paying US$225 million. S Tel has licences to operate in six Indian states - Bihar, Orissa, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, North East and Assam - and expects to launch operations in late 2009.
Table of Contents
1. Executive summary
2. Key statistics
3. Telecommunications market
3.1 Overview of Bahrain's telecom market
4. Regulatory environment
4.1 Background
4.2 Regulatory authority
4.3 Telecom sector liberalisation in Bahrain
4.3.1 First National Telecommunications Plan
4.3.2 Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) licences
4.3.3 Second National Telecommunications Plan and planned measures
4.4 Interconnect
4.5 Access
4.5.1 Reference Access Offer (RAO)
4.6 Number portability
4.7 Privatisation
5. Fixed network operators in Bahrain
5.1 Overview
5.2 Bahrain telecommunications company (Batelco)
5.3 Alternative operators
5.3.1 Mena Telecom
5.3.2 Lightspeed Communications
5.3.3 Kalaam Telecom
5.3.4 2Connect
6. Telecommunications infrastructure
6.1 National telecom network
6.1.1 Next Generation Networks (NGNs)
6.2 International infrastructure
6.2.1 Submarine cable networks
6.2.2 Satellite networks
6.2.3 Noorsat
7. Wholesaling
7.1 Overview
8. Broadband and Internet market
8.1 Internet market overview
8.1.1 Internet statistics
8.1.2 Bahrain's ISP market
8.1.3 Internet Exchange
8.2 Internet economy
8.2.1 E-government
8.3 Broadband market overview
8.3.1 Broadband statistics
8.4 Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL)
8.5 Wireless broadband
8.5.1 Mobile broadband
8.5.2 WiFi
8.5.3 WiMAX
8.5.4 Mobile broadband
8.5.5 Internet via satellite
9. Convergence
9.1 Overview of media convergence
9.2 VoIP
9.3 Triple play
10. Digital media
10.1 Satellite TV
11. Mobile communications
11.1 Overview of Bahrain's mobile market
11.1.1 Mobile statistics
11.2 Regulatory issues
11.2.1 Second mobile licence
11.2.2 Third mobile licence
11.2.3 Prepaid subscriber registration
11.3 Mobile technologies
11.3.1 Analogue
11.3.2 Digital
11.3.3 Third Generation (3G)
11.4 Major mobile operators
11.4.1 Batelco
11.4.2 Zain Bahrain (formerly MTC Vodafone)
11.5 Mobile voice services
11.5.1 Prepaid
11.6 Mobile data services
11.6.1 Enhanced data for GSM evolution (EDGE)
11.6.2 High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA)
11.6.3 BlackBerry
11.7 Mobile content
11.7.1 Batelco
11.7.2 Zain Bahrain
12. Related reports
Table 1 - Country statistics Bahrain - 2008
Table 2 - Telephone network statistics - 2008
Table 3 - Internet user statistics - 2008
Table 4 - Broadband statistics - 2008
Table 5 - Mobile statistics - June 2009
Table 6 - National telecommunications authority
Table 7 - Total telecommunications market revenue - 2003 - 2008
Table 8 - Telecommunications market revenue by sector - 2008
Table 9 - Fixed-line ARPU - 2007 - 2008
Table 10 - Batelco revenue and profit - Bahrain and other MENA - 2005 - 2008
Table 11 - Batelco revenue by division - 2005 - 2008
Table 12 - Batelco total group mobile subscribers - 2005 - 2008
Table 13 - Fixed lines in service and teledensity - 1995 - 2008
Table 14 - Internet users and penetration estimates - 1995 - 2008
Table 15 - Internet subscribers - 1999 - 2008
Table 16 - Dial-up Internet subscribers - 2005 - 2008
Table 17 - Broadband subscribers - 2005 - 2008
Table 18 - Broadband subscribers by access method - 2004 - 2008
Table 19 - Market share of Internet and broadband by access method - 2004 - 2008
Table 20 - Broadband subscribers by access speed - 2007 - 2008
Table 21 - Business broadband subscribers by access method - 2004 - 2008
Table 22 - Broadband monthly ARPU - 2007 - 2008
Table 23 - Household fixed broadband penetration rate - 2007 - 2008
Table 24 - Mobile subscribers and penetration rate - 1995 - 2011
Table 25 - Mobile operators, subscribers and annual change - September 2009
Table 26 - Mobile operators' market share - 2004 - 2009
Table 27 - Mobile monthly ARPU - 2007 - 2008
Table 28 - Zain Bahrain: Revenue, ARPU - 2005 - 2009
Table 29 - Prepaid mobile subscribers - 1999 - 2008
Table 30 - Zain Bahrain prepaid subscribers - 2004 - 2009
Table 31 - Average monthly outgoing SMS per subscriber - 2007 - 2008
Table 32 - Mobile data subscribers by service - 2007
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