Manama, Bahrain: "Efforts to innovate and our continued focus on maximising customer experience and satisfaction have enabled Batelco to maintain our market leadership in the Kingdom across the full spectrum of communications services. This is despite the highly competitive nature of the market and a restrictive regulatory environment, which continues to impact growth," noted Shaikh Mohamed Bin Isa Al Khalifa, CEO of Batelco which is the leading telecom in the Middle East and also Bahrain's largest telecom.

At the end of the third quarter, Batelco maintained a strong 42% share of the mobile market. Whilst this reflected a decrease of 9% when compared to the previous year period, the operation witnessed 64% year-on-year growth in mobile broadband subscribers. The growth in mobile broadband subscribers was consistent with previous trends and supported by ongoing services upgrades which continue to make the company's service faster and more reliable.

Demand for fixed services, conversely, decreased during the quarter. Fixed broadband and fixed line subscriber numbers reduced by 12% and 6%, respectively, year over year whilst remaining relatively stable since last quarter. These results are in line with industry trends, particularly in the MENA region where users continue to migrate from fixed broadband and telephony to wireless and mobile technologies.

"Due to the nature of the market in Bahrain, we have naturally been unable to achieve growth in absolute numbers in the mobile market. Nevertheless, we are focused on retaining our high value business and residential mobile and data customers. We've done a solid job of this and are particularly pleased with the exponential growth we've achieved in mobile data subscribers. The same holds true for wireless broadband, where we continue to report strong increases quarter after quarter. As we've said, success for us can only be achieved through innovation, which we remain fully committed to," added Shaikh Mohamed.

In this regard, Batelco launched a number of new innovations during the third quarter. The company announced its state-of-the-art Customer Experience Centre, the first of its kind in Bahrain. Located at its Hamala Headquarters, the facility is designed to give business customers the opportunity to experience the latest communication and ICT products and services offered by Batelco. Staffed by a team of experienced consultants, customers can obtain advice on the best and broadest range of customized, integrated solutions to meet their business requirements.

Another innovation during the period was the introduction of its cloud service 'IMaaS', a software as a service (SaaS) platform that enables organisations to build business decisions on unique insights into the value and impact of their core infrastructure (i.e. routers, firewalls, switch, servers etc.) IMaaS, available exclusively from Batelco, is one of the first cloud based services launched in the Kingdom, and is one of many cloud initiatives which will be carried out by Batelco in the near future.

Other key initiatives of the third quarter were the continued introduction of new service upgrades, price reductions, offers and promotions both for postpaid and prepaid mobile and broadband subscribers. Batelco Business customers benefited from discounts on their Broadband packages, and additionally the cost of Batelco's Fixed IP service was discounted by 50% representing great value for money. At the same time, new Broadband packages, Business Light Packages, offering the ideal solution for small businesses with basic Broadband requirements were also introduced. New packages were made available, all delivering unlimited threshold with high speeds and low prices in addition to other advantages.

Innovation at the company and indeed across the Group is driven by its highly skilled teams and management. In recognition of excellence, four of its senior executives were included in CommsMEA's list of the top 50 female executives of the region. Batelco's HR Division also continued to take top honours, having been presented with the annual GCC Human Capital Award for Best Performance Management Strategy at the 4th Annual GCC HR Excellence Awards 2012. These awards reward organisations and individuals based on innovative approaches to HR and talent management.

Continued Community Engagement

Corporate Social Responsibility also continued to be a major focus for Batelco. Throughout the quarter, the company continued assisting local charitable organisations across the community. New funding was extended to a number of causes including support for the elderly, healthcare, education and sport. To date this year, Batelco has pledged more than BD 2.7M in support and over all continues to make significant contributions to more than 35 different charities in Bahrain.

This press release has been issued by Batelco Corporate Affairs department. For further information, please contact Batelco Public Relations Office at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. / Fax +973 17611898.