The TRA has once again imposed its power and issued the second Order to Batelco this year. The order forces Batelco to revise their Reference Access Offer (The services and prices offered to other ISPs, allowing them to use Batelco’s network)
Batelco had 2 weeks to implement these changes, and they have done so just as the deadline passed (July 26th). The new RO is available here on Batelco’s website, as well as the full original here (pdf) on the TRA’s website.
This is good news for everyone in Bahrain. There are many points in the order but the following are some highlights:
- Batelco is now forced to offer all of its fixed telephony services to competitors
- These services more importantly include Wholesale DSL and Bitstream
- The full RO has now been published on the Batelco website, as well as the PDF version on the TRA’s website
- As an example, Batelco is current offering 1Mb (15Gb threshold) for BD 40. They now have to offer the same service to other service providers for BD 32. That means if another ISP can keep their overheads below BD 8, they can offer the same service at a cheaper price. Effectively, other ISPs could offer the service at BD 32 if they wish to do so.
- The imposed Bitstream service is even better, as the price for 1Mb ADSL circuit is BD 23. This means other ISPs just have to add their cost of providing 10:1 Internet on this link, which could be BD 10 to 20 for unlimited usage. A BD 50 unlimited usage 1Mb service is very realistic now.
- The rollout of Bitstream service includes creating an aggregation point in Seef area, which is planned to be done in October, this is good because BIX is also in the same area so it will be very cheap for ISPs to get Internet uplinks.
- The second requirement for Bitstream is Batelco Exchanges to be equipped with DSLAMs for the Bitstream service. Unfortuantely Batelco is planning to do this by June 2007, almost one year away.
However, Batelco as it should be is not happy about this and is currently appealing the Access Order in arbitration proceedings. All these changes are subject to the Arbitration process. It is not clear whether this means that other service providers have to wait for the Arbitration process to end before being able to take advantage of these offer, but the guess is that since the TRA have taken such a firm stance, they will put all their weight behind this order so that it is not subject to and will not be modified by any appeal.
It is now up to other service providers to take advantage of these offers. Batelco will try to delay this into 2008, but subject to the arbitration, we are looking at a best case scenario of October 2006 and a worst case scenario of June 2007, to have better telecommunications offers.
ed: this is the news that we were waiting for on the 12th! now all is clear.
July 27th, 2006 at 8:34 pm
[...] This is good news for everyone in Bahrain. There are many points in the order but the following are some highlights: BoycottBatelco.com [...]
July 27th, 2006 at 9:33 pm
w00t.
TRA : 2 - Batelco : 0.
Sweet news.
Now if only the other ISPs will open up >_>.
July 27th, 2006 at 9:37 pm
that’s coming, pretty soon now! we should mount a campaign on the three potential ISPs (Kalaam, 2connect and Lightspeed) to see what now delays them from launching their services; because once they do, then competition WILL BE established and then watch Batelco respond with great offers!
July 27th, 2006 at 10:03 pm
That’s a great result!
Now we need to bring your campaign south to us poor UAEans.
July 27th, 2006 at 10:48 pm
Right now I’m looking forward to Menatelecom due to the 6 Mbit/1.5 Connection.
That’l be EXCELLENT for gaming ^_^.
July 28th, 2006 at 1:04 am
i Love it i Love it.. especially since im so pissed off at batelco these days for their CRAPPY SLOW internet connection.. i hate it that i have to pay 40 dinars a month for a supposedly fast connection which is BY THE WAY slower than before for me these days .. and i still have a LIMIT .. AAAAAAAAAARGH .. GO TRA .. !!! MORE MORE!!!
July 28th, 2006 at 3:28 am
O boy. It’s time for JUSTICE. The time will soon come for us to taste a fresh, and a pure connection.
So long Batelco… So long.
Please keep up informed of any coming news.
July 28th, 2006 at 8:16 am
not to burst anyone’s bubble or anything, but whats up with that thing called “wifi licensing”?
and yes, tis a glorious day in the history of our natoin, hopefully batelco will wise up and start pumpin out them nice deals
July 28th, 2006 at 11:47 am
this is great news,
but does it mean that batelco is still controling the lowest prices ISPs can offer?
will we ever see prices similar to UAE?
July 28th, 2006 at 2:05 pm
What’s stopping them? As the TRA has the confidential and audited reports of Batelco it knows their cost, and it is based on those costs that these new prices have been set, ensuring that Batelco gets a decent margin for its infrastructure but limiting that margin to a reasonable figure too. I don’t know what that margin is, but if you look at the pdf on page 69 I think or thereabouts, you will see the set wholesale prices, look especially at how cheap the 256k access is to become, as well as the higher levels.
Now with competition, we expect competitors to start offering prices very close to the set prices, and as with time offering these services will become cheaper, the TRA will ensure that those savings are passed through to the customer.
I would say that with the TRA being this active and this powerful, I think our prices will become very competitive to those of the UAE and other parts of this area!
At last!
July 28th, 2006 at 3:53 pm
guys I think you are all dreaming, Batelco will never lower their prices, the TRA and batelco are mafia and the money that are stolen from us will go to the same pocket (governemnt and corrupted people), so I don’t think this subject deserved to make us happy, wake up guys, we are dealing with the most istatiable people for money in the whole universe. We will pay 40 BD for limited stupid connection till we die!
July 28th, 2006 at 4:11 pm
C’mon, don’t be so pessimstic.
We didn’t win the war but we won a battle.
That’s enough to make me happy.
If we see this through to the end, we’l find out who’s the culprits :p.
July 29th, 2006 at 3:52 pm
“I think our prices will become very competitive to those of the UAE”.
That we can only dream of.
I totally agree with “I hate batelco”’s comments. It all seems like a big game to cool us down.
Yes we will get faster/cheaper packages but only after everyone else reaches way beyond.
This whole country needs a new setup!
July 29th, 2006 at 4:50 pm
Fingers crossed, prayers said, let’s hope it maks a difference
July 31st, 2006 at 3:01 pm
Hey guys
has anyone been experiencing very terrible internet connection these days? today it’s very slow and just seems something very big is wrong… same thing from home and from uni.. what’s going on?!?!?
August 1st, 2006 at 2:39 am
Yes jay, to say truth I believe that everyone is having a terrible internet connection not just you and me.This sucks for me. I play online games and with this connection I can’t really enjoy the game.
August 5th, 2006 at 12:34 pm
wickedd
thank god atlast something good to look forward…
im really so annoyed by these limits…
hope to seen unlimited package by new ISP’s very soon best of luck :).
August 5th, 2006 at 6:26 pm
Inshalla ya rab that we get something by the end of this year… like the last quarter of this year. I really can’t live with this stupid limit. -_-;
It’s so stressful.
October 6th, 2006 at 9:03 am
batelco treat their customers like garbage, the customer service is the worst i have ever experienced, if this was any other country theyd have been ousted by now, the sooner major competition sets up here the better, switch to vodaphone!