Bahrain’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) is making available Batelco’s connections to homes and business to competing operators.
In telecoms terms this is commonly known as unbundling the local loop.
“This move is an essential enabler of further competition at the retail level, especially for the provision of high-speed broadband,” said TRA general director Alan Horne.
“When implemented, it is expected to result in raising the Internet access speed without necessarily raising prices as well as increase product innovation and differentiation.”
To achieve this measure, TRA yesterday issued an invitation to consultancy firms to submit their proposals in order to assist in defining the process and procedures required to effectively complete the local loop unbundling (LLU).
“Along with defining the appropriate approach for implementing LLU, the selected consultancy firm will work on producing the detailed required documents to ensure smooth implementation of service descriptions, service level agreements and operation manuals,” said TRA manager for market and competition Adel Darwish.
“The consultancy firm will closely work with TRA and Batelco to host a series of workshops for the industry, to ensure understanding of the LLU services.”
The Telecommunications Law obliges Batelco to provide other licensed operators an access to its local exchanges, allowing them to reach the end consumer.
This latest move is aimed at supporting a choice of competitive services over Batelco’s access network.
The unbundled local loop services will be available to competing licensed operators as an addition to existing Batelco wholesale services.