Bahrain will see 5G deployed across the Gulf country as Swedish telco Ericsson partners with local player Batelco.
The partnership will see Ericsson introduce its commercial 5G equipment such as 5G New Radio (NR), mobile transport, and core in Batelco’s network to help it meet growing data traffic demands and deliver high-quality enhanced mobile broadband and fixed wireless access.
It comes after Bahrain said in March that it hopes to provide commercial 5G services by June this year pending availability of consumer handsets and equipment.
The Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications, Kamal bin Ahmed Mohammed said preparations for the rollout of 5G networks in the kingdom are complete, with regulatory hurdles to full 5G implementation having been resolved, as well as licensing and spectrum allocation set to be finalised by mid-April by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA), he said.
The shift to 5G will see mobile broadband enhanced for subscribers in Bahrain to allow for better experiences when it comes to services such as streaming, downloading, gaming, infotainment, and interactivity.
It will also help Batelco provide opportunities in the Internet of Things (IoT) and Industry 4.0 to companies in Bahrain.
Batelco Bahrain CEO Mohamed Bubashait said, “Batelco is committed to delivering exceptional customer experience through provisioning of seamless, advanced mobile services over 5G. We are therefore very pleased to strengthen our strategic partnership with Ericsson to commercially deploy 5G – to enhance our mobile network and services for people across Bahrain.”
Rafiah Ibrahim, Head of Market Area Middle East & Africa at Ericsson said, “Today, we are partnering with Batelco for a 5G commercial deployment in Bahrain. 5G promises to accelerate the digitization of industries, offering service providers with new opportunities and enabling them to launch the most advanced technologies while improving the end-user experience with higher data speeds and lower latency.”
Ericsson recently developed its 5G platform with additions across core, radio accress and transport areas in order to allow service providers to evolve their networks and deploy 5G at scale.
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