09Jan
MANAMA, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Bahrain is considering whether to investigate allegations of graft at Bahrain Telecommunications Co BTEL.BH and officials discussed the charges with the company on Wednesday, one of the officials told Reuters.
After the meeting, the company, known as Batelco, denied the allegations made by a lawmaker and carried by Bahrain’s Gulf Daily News newspaper in its Wednesday edition.
The lawmaker, Abdullatif al-Shaikh, accused Batelco of paying off an executive in Jordan to secure an acquisition in that country and of running bogus projects that allowed company officials to make money, the Gulf Daily News newspaper said.
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Tags: batelco, corruption, graft, investigation
08Nov
A new corporate-focused telecoms provider, Rawabi Telecom, has been launched in Bahrain this week by its 95% shareholder, Saudi Arabia’s Rawabi Holding Group. Rawabi Telecom, which is 5% owned by a Bahraini company, has acquired three licences from the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority for international telephony, ISP and value added services. ‘The launch of the new company is part of a strategic movement globally directed on behalf of its parent group,’ Rawabi Telecom COO Maro Simatovic told the Gulf Daily News. He added: ‘The company has differentiated from other players through marketing schemes targeting niche markets, secure systems enabling and non-product specific services. We are expecting to launch a full range of new services for the common consumer in the next 60 days, but have already penetrated the oil and gas industry and the financial sector by providing a select number of services to clients already. Our aim is to be corporate-orientated and operate on a basis of integrity and transparency when dealing with clients. Our services include a synchronisation of services between technology such as mobiles and laptops, remote communications and the introduction of cross-information services such as receiving voicemails as e-mail messages. Our partners include Redline communications, Nextone, Paybox and Verscom, who will be critical to providing us with up-to-date expertise in emerging technologies to help our clients remain at the cutting edge of an ever-changing market.’
Tags: competion, entrant, rawabi
01Aug
As part of the business benefit campaign, Batelco, Bahrain’s leading Internet services provider, has announced up to 50 per cent reduction on its business and educational inet broadband packages.
With effect from August 1, 2007, business customers can pay up to 50 per cent less in the rental charges of five value-for-money high speed inet broadband packages; - Business 512kbps volume package with 10GB threshold at BD75 per month, Business 1Mbps with unlimited usage at BD125 per month, Business 2Mbps with unlimited usage at BD175 per month, Education 1Mbps with unlimited usage at BD100 per month, and Education 2Mbps with unlimited usage at BD150 per month.
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31Jul
Bahrain’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) yesterday announced it has ordered Batelco to reduce some of the prices it charges rival firms to use its network. In a statement, the TRA said despite several debates with Batelco officials on the incumbent operator’s interconnection charges, the regulator “was not satisfied that all charges were fair and reasonable”.
Last night, Batelco told GDN it would not appeal the decision and would comply with the regulator’s demands.
The TRA said it hoped its decision to make Batelco reduce its Reference Interconnection Offer (RIO) to other firms would be passed onto the end user in the form of lower bills.
“The RIO is the basic offer by Batelco to other licensed operators (OLOs) that allows them to provide telecommunications services to their customers as well as connect to Batelco’s network so that their customers can communicate with Batelco’s customers,” the TRA said in its statement.
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26Jul
Bahrain, one of the first countries to deregulate its telecom sector, will also be the first country in the Middle East to be covered 100 per cent by the state-of-the-art wireless network WiMax to be deployed in the Kingdom by the US giant Motorola for Mena Telecom.
Mena Telecom, a subsidiary of Kuwait Finance House (KFH), signed a major agreement with Motorola Inc to plan, deploy and manage a nationwide 802.16e-based mobile WiMax and IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) network in the Bahrain.
Abdulhakeem Al Khayyat, chairman of Mena Telecom and general manager of KFH, who signed the agreement with Motorola’s vice-president Middle East & Africa Networks and Enterprise Ali Amer, told a Press conference that the Kingdom’s attractive telecom sector would help to elevate the standard of services and also to attract foreign investments.
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