Page 10 - SAMENA Trends - January 2020

FEATURED SAMENA TRENDS

TRA Bahrain Speaks to SAMENA Council

5G in combination with the Internet

of Things will bring countless
opportunities that will require
buy-in from investors beyond
the Telecoms and ICT sector, as
the applications of these new
technologies significantly impact
every sector imaginable. We have
received new licensee requests
from IoT companies and there

seems to be an increased interest
in investment from IoT centric
businesses.

Q. How has the TRA Bahrain made significant strides
in fulfilling the Bahrain Government’s digital vision of
positioning Bahrain among the leading ICT developing
nations in the world?
A. At the end of May 2019, Batelco, the incumbent
was legally separated into two separate, independent
entities. Bnet was formed as the new wholesale
infrastructure provider, and Batelco remained as
a retail services provider, which leases Bnet’s
Broadband Infrastructure to resell fiber-optic fixed
internet services to end-users, as is the case for other
licensees in the Kingdom. For this to materialize, we
established a new economic regulatory framework
in line with the government’s policy directions under
NTP4, then issued the separation guidelines and
Shaikh Nasser Bin Mohamed Al Khalifa reference offer, setting out the terms and conditions
under which the new entity, Bnet, would offer its
Acting General Director services to all other licensees, and changes to the
TRA - Bahrain telecom law that preceded all of these key milestones
and the creation of a compliance committee which we
are finalizing now.

It’s worth noting that very few countries have
attempted this, as establishing a national broadband
network is a monumental undertaking. We’re the first
and the only regulator to have done it successfully in
the MENA region as of yet, and completed this project
in thirty-six months, which is unprecedented.

10 JANUARY 2020