Bahrain’s Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications Welcomes a New Era of 5G to Bahrain as one of the First Countries in the World to Introduce Ground-breakingTechnology

H.E Eng. Kamal bin Ahmed Mohamed, Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications this evening heralded a new era of ground breaking innovation that will see Bahrain become one of the first countries in the world to deploy 5G telecommunications technology.

Speaking whilst attending the VIVA 5G live showcase at City Center, the Minister commented: “I would like to congratulate VIVA Bahrain for helping position our country firmly at the forefront of 5G deployment, placing us amongst only a handful of countries around the world to do so. This announcement simply underlines our position, under the leadership of HM King Hamad, as one of the region’s most dynamic and forward-looking economies.

“By becoming one of the first countries in the world to introduce 5G elements across our national network we are confirming our genuine commitment to accelerate Bahrain’s digitization and continuous effort to introduce the latest technologies to the people of Bahrain.

“We have also put in place a solid infrastructure for the growth of the sector and are benchmarking ourselves against some of the global leaders in telecoms in order to achieve even more. We are in the middle of implementing our 4th National Telecommunications Plan and I am happy to see VIVA taking the initiative by capitalizing on this infrastructure and expanding its services to provide users with the latest technologies.”

Eng. Abdulla Al Zmami, VIVA Bahrain Chairman said, “This step reconfirms our genuine commitment to accelerate Bahrain’s digitization and continuous effort to introduce the latest technologies to the people of Bahrain. This links back to VIVA’s core vision in transforming Bahrain’s telecommunications landscape and offer an unprecedented telecom experience to the community.”

In his comment, Mr. Ulaiyan Al Wetaid, VIVA Bahrain CEO said: “As an industry first, this milestone reinforces Bahrain’s leading digital position in the region and enhances Bahrain’sreadiness for next generation technologies in support of Bahrain’s vision 2030.”

“The aim of the 5G live launch is to allow the public to get a feeling of what 5G technology brings to our lives,” he added.

VIVA Bahrain have recently showcased the life-changing speeds and capabilities of VIVA 5G for homes and businesses with a number of 5G-enabled devices available for public trial such as 4KUHD TV, Virtual Reality (VR) goggles. During a recent live 5G speed test, VIVA Bahrain achieved unprecedented gigabit speeds reaching up to 1.5 Gbps using a commercial broadband router, opening doors to a new era of sophisticated technologies enabled by reliably fast data speeds.

5G network is expected to make a quantum leap in future services and applications and will contribute in increasing the speed and performance of wireless networks. It will not only improve the connectivity between people and their phones or computers, but will also enable more sophisticated technologies such as IOT, Artificial Intelligence and robots.