Just 20 years ago, Qatar’s leadership set out to liberalise the country’s telecoms sector, transforming its state-run monopoly operator into a market-driven firm. This was part of an effort to transition the Qatari economy away from its traditional mainstays, oil and gas. To that end, the ICT sector has been instrumental to a broader process...
Bahrain is home to one of the most liberalised telecoms markets in the Middle East. Although it is a relatively small market, with a population of 1.3m in 2014, according to the Central Informatics Organisation, its official statistics agency, the country is keen to leverage the telecoms sector to facilitate broader economic growth, and the...
Bahrain has a history of involvement with telecoms that dates back to 1864, when the island became a way station for the telegraph cable link between India and Europe. It was the first country in the Middle East to install a mainframe computer (at the Bahrain Petroleum Company, BAPCO, in 1962), to install a satellite station (1969) and to...
Telecoms operators across Bahrain have become increasingly spectrum-hungry over the past few years. Since the late 2000s, when uptake of smart-phones began to rise sharply, then-existing 3G capacity started to look increasingly inadequate. At the same time, margins of voice services have continued to decline, prompting telecoms firms to seek...
With two well established full-network operators complemented by a range of dynamic “reseller” players, Oman’s telecommunications market is lively and competitive. Growing market maturity has led to operators looking to boost take up of mobile internet and value-added services (VAS) in order to drive revenues, while targeting niches with...
Having adopted a forward-looking strategy for ICT development a decade ago, Oman has made great strides in building up its technological infrastructure and its capacity, within both the government and the private sector. “There has been an increase in the demand for IT services, particularly from the private sector who know the value of...
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