VIVA Bahrain

VIVA Bahrain logo

Country/Region

Company Name

Viva Bahrain BSC Closed

Ownership Type

Subsidiary

Ownership/Controlling Entity

MNC

04

3G UMTS Frequency Bands

4G LTE Frequency Bands

Company Overview

VIVA Bahrain is a telecommunications company based in Seef District, Bahrain. The company is a fully owned subsidiary of the Saudi Telecom Company Group (STC) and started its commercial service in March 2010.

VIVA operates a 2G GSM service over 900 and 1800 MHz, and 3G services on B1 (2100 MHz) since March 2010. Through its HSPA+ network upgrade in May 2011 and DC-HSPA+ in November 2011, VIVA became the first operator in Bahrain to provide speeds of up to 42 Mbps to its broadband subscribers.

VIVA showcased its 4G/LTE network in January 2012, officially launching 4G/LTE services to customers in January 2014 over the B3 (1800 MHz) band. The company achieved a world first when in 2016 it partnered with Huawei to deploy triple-beam nine sector antenna solution to provide between 2.2 to 2.7 times the capacity in comparison to a standard cell site. In May 2016 peak data rates were increased from 100 to 150 Mbps through extending channel width to 20 MHz.

The company made another first for Bahrain when in July 2017 VIVA launched LTE-A services marketed as 4G+ and offering up to 225 Mbps peak data rates. It is expected that VIVA has implemented an additional 10 MHz carrier, however the frequency is unknown.

VIVA Bahrain 5G

The company conducted a live network test in June 2018, achieving 1.5 Gbps. VIVA announced its network was 5G-ready in February 2019, the first Bahraini operator to do so. While spectrum choice has not been confirmed, the Bahraini Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) has reserved 2x30 MHz paired spectrum in the 800 MHz band, and 140 MHz paired / unpaired in the 2600 MHz band for the nations 5G services.

3G UMTS Network Information

Details on UMTS network deployments are shown below. Data are often incomplete due to commercial nature. Consult dossier text for further details.

Launch Date 2010-03 Status Active
UMTS BandPacket DataStatus
Active
4G LTE Network Information

Details on LTE network deployments are shown below. Data are often incomplete due to commercial nature. Consult dossier text for further details.

Evolution Status Active [Launched 2012-01]
Max. MIMO Max. Modulation
Carrier Aggregation - Features -
LTE BandChannel WidthStatus
20 MHz Active
5G NR Network Information

Details on 5G NR network deployments are shown below. Data are often incomplete due to commercial nature. Consult dossier text for further details.

Type Status Limited / Partial Use [Launched 2019-02-12]
Max. MIMO Max. Modulation
Carrier Aggregation - Features -
NR BandChannel WidthStatus
No Data Unconfirmed