TRA celebrates World Telecom Day

Manama, May 18 (BNA): Every year on the 17th of May, World Telecommunications Day celebrates the constant evolution of one of the most important factors of our lives: communication. The main goal of World Telecommunications Day (WTD) is to highlight the importance of communication and how information travels across the world. It also aims to increase awareness of how crucial communication is in our lives, and stimulate the development of technologies in the field. The World Telecommunications Day is in tight connections with the International Telegraph Union (ITU), the committee formed in 1865 to support the emerging communication methods of the time. ITU was present throughout all the great breakthroughs in communication – the invention of the telephone in 1876, the launch of the first satellite in 1957 and, ultimately, the birth of the Internet in the 60s. Even though The International Telegraph Union has since changed its name to International Telecommunications Union, it still remains the most important entity in the field of communications, thus remaining in the spotlight at World Telecommunications Day. Telecommunications Regulatory Authority Bahrain, in spirit of this occasion, highlights the advancements in Bahrain’s telecommunications sector. With 423 Million Dinars of revenue last year, telecoms makes up 4% of the GDP. The sector employs 3000 people and 90% of Bahrain uses the internet. The Kingdom of Bahrain ranks the 27th in the world according to the ITU’s ICT Development Index, and 1st in the region. As of the 3rd Quarter of 2014, 1,842,000 broadband subscriptions were activated, penetration reaching 140%. In 2013, prices for broadband services reduced by 65% and mobile services reduced by 25%. Available International Bandwidth increased from 290 Giga bytes per second to 360 GBPS in 2014. The Authority had issued 159 licenses to 62 licensees. At 183% penetration in the third quarter of 2014, Mobile subscriptions reached 2,413,809.