Bahrain’s internet penetration rate seems to have broken all previous records during the COVID-19 lockdowns with as much as 99.7% of the respondents of a new survey saying that they have used the internet in the last three months.
The latest Telecommunications Services Residential Market Survey report by Bahrain’s Telecommunications Regulations Authority (TRA) is also a clear indication that internet services are becoming increasingly affordable in the Kingdom.
It is worth mentioning here that as of October 2019, Bahrain stood 4th in the World Economic Forum’s global rankings of the percentage of individuals with access to the internet.
As for the TRA survey is concerned, nearly all respondents said that they had mobile phone services. However, the survey also showed that the percentage of people holding two SIM cards or more decreased to 14% in 2019 as compared to 38% in 2017.
This is actually a positive sign that underlines continuous development in mobile telephony packages. Apparently, those who are still using two or more SIM cards are doing so primarily because they want to have separate numbers for personal and business usage.
“The high penetration rate of Internet services has supported the government’s efforts to activate education and work remotely. The availability of high speeds and large data capacity has helped support the implementation and use of the applications necessary to perform the tasks of education and work remotely,” said Shaikh Nasser bin Mohamed Al Khalifa, Acting General Director of TRA.
