The Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications, Kamal bin Ahmed Mohammed has announced that preparations for the rollout of 5G networks in the Kingdom of Bahrain are complete.
The Minister anticipates that Bahrain will be one of the first countries globally to provide commercial 5G services by June 2019, pending availability of consumer handsets and equipment.
All of the regulatory hurdles to full 5G implementation have been resolved, with the licensing and spectrum allocation set to be finalised by mid-April by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (“TRA”).
Mobile operators in the Kingdom have already begun rolling out the necessary network infrastructure.
Said the Minister: “Bahrain’s state of readiness is a testament to the leadership of the Government of the Kingdom of Bahrain in enabling the implementation of cutting-edge technology and promoting innovation.
“The continuous support of all stakeholders including the TRA and the national Spectrum Strategy & Coordination Committee (SSCC), also serves to highlight the Kingdom’s continued role as a regional leader in telecommunications and ICT.”
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This announcement positions Bahrain as one of the globe’s leading 5G-ready countries and increases its attractiveness as a destination for companies trialling next-generation technologies such as autonomous vehicles and virtual/augmented reality products.
These products and services will also be ably supported by the National Broadband Network (NBN) 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 the 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.
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