Mubasher: The transportation and telecommunications minister of Bahrain Kamal bin Ahmed Mohammed announced that the kingdom is expected to witness the launch 5G networks by June 2019.
The preparations for the rollout of 5G networks in Bahrain are completed, with anticipations for the Gulf country to be one of the first countries globally to provide commercial 5G services, pending availability of consumer handsets and equipment, according to a recent press release.
“All of the regulatory hurdles to full 5G implementation have been resolved, with the licensing and spectrum allocation set to be finalised by mid-April by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA),” the press release said.
Mobile operators across Bahrain have already begun rolling out the necessary network infrastructure to get ready for the official launch.
In June 2018, successful commercial trials for 5G technology were held and all telecom operators in Bahrain are currently preparing to provide commercial 5G services which will be launched when consumer handsets become available.
“The products and services will be in line with the 3GPP standards issued in 2018 and will predominantly utilise bandwidth in the C-Band spectrum (3GHz) and will allow Bahraini companies to tap into the global 5G services market, which is anticipated to grow from an estimated $60 billion in 2020 to an estimated $125 billion in 2025,” the press release added.
Enabling a higher volume of data transmission at higher speeds, lower latencies, is considered one of the major benefits of 5G technology.
“This, in turn, enables the development and implementation of technologies such as autonomous driving vehicles, which can require up to 100Gb of data per second to operate. Research and development into other technologies such as AI open up a massive potential market for Bahrain,” according to the press release.
