Bahrain’s second largest cellco by subscribers, Zain Bahrain, has announced its intention to commercially launch a 5G network at the end of 2018, according to the Bahrain Bourse, which cites an article in local news outlet AlAyam. The news comes after the country’s leading mobile operator Bahrain Telecommunications Company (Batelco) recently announced that it had conducted Bahrain’s first 5G trial with Swedish technology provider Ericsson. No details have yet been provided by Zain as to who it will partner with in order to offer 5G services next year.
According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, Zain Bahrain launched its 4G LTE mobile network in April 2013 and had 99.95% coverage at the end of 2016.