Page 76 - SAMENA Trends - November 2020

REGULATORY & POLICY UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

A SNAPSHOT OF REGULATORY ACTIVITIES

IN THE SAMENA REGION

Bahrain

More than 14,000 government emails have been migrated to the cloud. The Microsoft 365 service package was also activated
cloud infrastructure provided by Microsoft, Information and in the process. Under an umbrella agreement with Microsoft,
eGovernment Authority (iGA) chief executive Mohammed Ali Al 45 government entities will benefit from comprehensive digital
Qaed yesterday said. The move is in line with the government’s solutions, which will enhance the quality and security of
cloud-first policy and represents a milestone in the migration government services and help to improve the efficiency of the
of information and data belonging to all government entities to country’s IT sector. (November 7, 2020) zawya.com

Bangladesh

The number of mobile phone subscribers rose 2.4 percent year- sharp focus on this has helped create the largest 4G network
on-year to 16.81 crore in October, data from the Bangladesh in the country," Shahed Alam, chief corporate and regulatory
Telecommunication Regulatory Commission showed. It came at officer of Robi Axiata, told The Daily Star yesterday. "Coupled
a time when the country's telecom operators are trying to stave with network infrastructure development, we have been pursuing
off the Covid-19 fallout. As a result of their efforts, the number innovation in every aspect of our business," he said. Perhaps the
of users has grown steadily since July. During the March-June most telling sign of Robi's growing appeal can be found in the fact
period, the industry lost around 30 lakh customers as the country that 70 per cent of all mobile number portability users switched
went into a full lockdown to prevent the spread of the Covid-19. to the network. "So, the background to the surge in our subscriber
But with October's uptick, 9 lakh new users were added in one base is very compelling," Alam added. Third-placed Banglalink
month, boosting the number well past its pre-pandemic high of had 3.49 crore subscribers in October, down from 3.5 crore a year
16.61 crore registered in February. Similarly, the number of internet ago. The number of users of state-run Teletalk was 46.18 lakh
users rose 10.25 per cent year-on-year to 11.07 crore in October. It in October compared to 47.06 lakh in the same month in 2019.
was 9.95 crore in the same month last year. However, the number (November 21, 2020) thedailystar.net
of internet users dropped slightly compared to September, when
it touched an all-time high of 11.11 crore. Currently, 10.21 crore The total number of Bangladesh's Internet subscribers topped
subscribers use the internet through handheld devices, while the 108 million at the end of August, including more than 8 million
rest rely on services provided by internet service providers and new users in the first eight months of this year, showed the
public-switched telephone network operators. The total number recently released data by the country's telecom regulator. The
of internet users stood at 9.99 crore in February. But following Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC)
the outbreak, this number has steadily soared as people are data showed that of the Internet subscribers, some 99.62 million
increasingly using internet to work and communicate and get are mobile Internet users and 8.57 million broadband Internet
entertained as they spend most of their time indoors to avoid users. Mobile phone subscribers totaled some 166 million in
catching the virus. Market leader Grameenphone's total number the country at the end of August. Bangladesh has currently four
of mobile phone customers jumped 2.70 per cent to 7.81 crore mobile companies in operation, three of them being foreign-
in October from 7.60 crore last year. Robi Axiata, which crossed backed cellphone operators. The number of subscribers of the
the 5-crore subscriber landmark in September, grew 4.27 per mobile operators, Grameenphone, Robi Axiata, Banglalink and
cent in October to reach 5.04 crore. During the same month last Teletalk stood at 77.01 million, 49.78 million, 34.58 million and
year, Robi had 4.83 crore in total. Robi attributed this rise in its 4.66 million, respectively, at the end of August, showed the BTRC
customer base to its 4G network. "To prepare for the digital era, data.
Robi has always focused on bolstering its 4G network. Our razor- (November 1, 2020) xinhuanet.com

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