The Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (TRA) has conducted an industry survey on international capacity and connectivity with the objective to assess the availability and diversity of international connectivity into Bahrain.
According to the survey results, Bahrain is very well positioned with 6 diverse physical routes composed of 4 submarine cable systems in the Gulf and 2 fibre routes linking to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Commenting on the situation, TRA General Director Mohammed bin Hamad Bubashait said:
"Telecommunications services are an important platform for supporting the digital economy. The increasing dependency of information-based industries upon information communication technologies and services emphasizes the importance of the telecoms sector in attracting and retaining key business players and providing consumers with telecommunications added value services. In order for state of the art national telecommunications networks to fulfill this role, robust and high-quality connectivity to international telecommunications networks is essential, otherwise the Kingdom would be isolated from the global eco-system."
Bubashait also added that " Sufficient, reliable and affordable international capacity is therefore a key element to achieve the Kingdom’s strategic vision and enhance the competitive position of Bahrain in the region, as emphasized in the Third National Telecommunications Plan, which will also enable national operators to provide competitive offers to individuals and businesses." Stressing that " The Authority will continue to monitor very closely the evolution of the situation."
The total available capacity over those routes is estimated to 360 Gigabit/s in 2014 while the used capacity is 123 Gigabit/s, representing about 34% consumption of the available pool and leaving a comfortable margin for traffic growth. Traffic increase is driven by the use of Internet services, over fixed and mobile networks, in particular since the launch of LTE in the Kingdom. Capacity allocated to IP traffic alone is estimated at 60 Gigabits per second which represents a 100% increase since last year when the capacity was estimated to 31 Gigabits per second.