In their first meeting this year, TRA’s board of directors discussed key developments in the Kingdom’s telecoms sector. TRA reports that consumers in the Kingdom now enjoy more welfare, with mobile telephony prices dropping by 29% between 2015 and 2016 and broadband prices by 50% in the same period.
“The International Telecoms Union (ITU) set a world target back in 2014 for broadband services to cost no more than 5% of average monthly income by 2020, and we’re proud to report that Bahrain has already achieved this target not only with the regular speeds of broadband services but the superfast speeds as well.” Says TRA Chairman, Dr. Mohamed Ahmed Al Amer. “The latest market indicators point to greater broadband affordability than ever before, with prices lower than the average prices in the GCC and Arab countries.” The Chairman continued.
According to the ITU reports, Bahrain ranked 2nd regionally and 20th globally in the fixed broadband prices basket in 2016 compared with 3rd regionally and 32nd globally in 2015.
Also noted, market penetration numbers continued to climb in 2016, with mobile penetration reaching 213% compared to 187% in 2015. On the other hand, broadband services penetration rose from 146% to 172% in the same period.
The Board of Directors expressed their gratitude and praised the TRA’s efforts in fostering the telecoms sector’s progress. They expressed their thanks and appreciation to the TRA team members for their support and professionalism and outstanding role in developing the sector. These indicators came as a result of the hard work and persistence of the highly professional team members that this was made possible.
Source: TRA Bahrain