Bahrain telcos lag behind Gulf rivals in 4G race

Bahrain's telecoms operators are at a disadvantage to their Gulf competitors because the country's regulator has not yet allocated the spectrum for next-generation high speed networks, a Batelco executive said on Wednesday. "We are losing the competitive edge here," Abdulhamid Chehab, Batelco general manager for mobile networks, told reporters on the sidelines of a conference in Dubai. "We are addressing the subject seriously to the regulator, but we are not getting a firm response when and which spectrum will be taken." Batelco's average data volume per user is doubling every six months, Chehab said, and many telecoms operators are betting on the new technology to meet soaring demand for data and to offset declining voice revenues. In the past month, operators in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and United Arab Emirates have launched Long-term evolution (LTE) networks, also called 4G, which potentially deliver data speeds more than double that of earlier platforms. Bahrain Telecommunications (Batelco) competes domestically with units of Saudi Telecom Co and Kuwait's Zain. Earlier on Wednesday, Qatari telecoms giant Qtel said it will invest $55m in a new long-term evolution (LTE) programme that will bring 4G to the Gulf state for the first time. The project, will involve deploying nearly 900 base stations across the country, which Qtel says will offer the best penetration for 4G coverage anywhere in the region.