BizBahrain Magazine (May-June 2019)

Main Feature | ICT Sector
the UN ITU’s ICT Development Index
(IDI), and ranked 4th globally in the UN’s
Telecommunications Infrastructure
Index (TII) of the E-Government
Development Index (EGDI) in 2018.
Reports also show that it’s not only
better in Bahrain for ICT businesses, but
also cheaper - ICT businesses enjoy a 15%
to 20% cost advantage in terms of annual
operating costs when compared to other
GCC countries. There are a number of
important factors at play - primarily, cost
and talent. Startups with international
aspirations find significant savings and
a deep pool of talent by basing their
operations in Bahrain as opposed to
neighbouring countries. Commercial
office space rentals are nearly half
the average for the Gulf region, and
businesses in Bahrain benefit from the
lowest operating costs and the second
lowest cost of living in the region.
Accommodation costs, utilities and
transportation costs consistently rank
among the lowest in the region.
Leading Emerging Markets
Internet investor, Rise Capital, recently
discussed its confidence in the GCC
entrepreneurship scene and its goal
to invest in early stage technology
businesses here, through its newlyannounced
global fund. Rise Capital
cites Bahrain as an example of a market
where the entrepreneurial ecosystem
has the potential to flourish far faster
than expected. Nazar Yasin, Founder
& Managing Partner at Rise Capital
and a 15-year veteran of emerging
markets technology investing points
to the fact that Bahrain has already
attracted large global technology
companies to establish a presence in
the market. “Huawei already has over
1,000 employees in Bahrain and Amazon
Web Services has already sponsored an
accelerator here. Now that the region
has started to see large exits like Uber’s
acquisition of Careem and Amazon’s
acquisition of Souq, we will only see the
entrepreneurial talent pool accelerate.”
Ready for 5G Capabilities
H.E. the Minister of Transportation
and Telecommunications in Bahrain,
Engineer Kamal bin Ahmed Mohammed
announced that preparations for the
rollout of 5G networks in the Kingdom
of Bahrain are complete, anticipating
that Bahrain will be one of the first
countries globally to provide commercial
5G services to consumers by June
2019, pending availability of consumer
handsets.
Preparations for the
rollout of 5G networks
in the Kingdom of
Bahrain are complete,
anticipating that
Bahrain will be one
of the first countries
globally to provide
commercial 5G services
to consumers by
June 2019, pending
availability of consumer
handsets.
This announcement positions
Bahrain as one of the world’s leading
5G-ready countries, increasing its
appeal as a destination for companies
trialing next-generation technologies
such as autonomous vehicles and
virtual/augmented reality goods,
as the Kingdom continues to
encourage investment in world-class
telecommunications infrastructure and
services. These products and services
will also be ably supported by the
National Broadband Network (NBN),
Mobile penetration rate, 2013-18 (%)
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
which will offer ubiquitous high-speed
fibre-based products to operators and
consumers throughout the Kingdom.
Successful commercial trials for 5G
technology in the Kingdom of Bahrain
were held in June 2018 and all licensed
operators are preparing to provide
commercial 5G services which will be
ready to go when consumer handsets
become available. The products and
services will be in line with the 3GPP
standards issued in 2018 and will
predominantly utilise bandwidth in
the C-Band spectrum (3GHz) and will
allow Bahraini companies to tap into
the global 5G services market, which is
anticipated to grow from an estimated
60 billion USD in 2020 to an estimated
125 billion USD in 2025.
One major benefit of 5G technology
is enabling higher volume of data
transmission at higher speeds (lower
latencies). This in turn enables the
development and implementation
of technologies such as autonomous
driving vehicles, which can require up
to 100Gb of data per second to operate.
Research and development into other
technologies such as AI open up a
massive potential market for Bahrain.
Furthermore, 5G can potentially support
interactive technologies like virtual
reality which need high bandwidth to
send and receive large amounts of data
with very low latency, helping enable
the growth of some IoT applications and
delivering improved video streaming
and high-end gaming.
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Source: TRA
May-June 2019
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