Manama, June 2018 – H.E Eng. Kamal bin Ahmed Mohamed, Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications, H.E. Shaikh Hisham Bin Abdulrahman Al Khalifa, Capital Governor, Dr. Mohammed Alamer, TRA Chairman, Shaikh Nasir Al Khalifa, TRA Managing Director (A) and Mr. Mohammed Al Qaed, iGA CEO successfully launched Bahrain’s first live and public 5G network demonstration hosted by VIVA Bahrain. The launch took place at City Centre Bahrain's Central Galleria in the presence of VIVA Bahrain’s Chairman, Mr. Abdulla Zmami, CEO of VIVA Bahrain, Mr. Ulaiyan Al Wetaid, and other VIVA senior management members.
At the scene, VIVA Bahrain showcased the life-changing speeds and capabilities of VIVA 5G for homes and businesses with a number of 5G-enabled devices available for public trial such as 4K UHD TV, Virtual Reality (VR) goggles. During the live 5G speed test, VIVA Bahrain achieved unprecedented gigabit speeds reaching up to 1.5 Gbps using a commercial broadband router, opening doors to a new era of sophisticated technologies enabled by reliably fast data speeds.
E. Eng. Kamal bin Ahmed Mohamed, Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications, said that this latest development in Bahrain’s telecommunications industry represents a major milestone. “We have put in place a solid infrastructure for the growth of the sector and are benchmarking ourselves against some of the global leaders in telecoms in order to achieve even more. We are in the middle of implementing our 4th National Telecommunications Plan and I am happy to see VIVA taking the initiative by capitalizing on this infrastructure and expanding its services to provide users with the latest technologies.”
Eng. Abdulla Zmami, VIVA Bahrain Chairman said, this step reconfirms our genuine commitment to accelerate Bahrain’s digitization and continuous effort to introduce the latest technologies to the people of Bahrain. This links back to VIVA`s core vision in transforming Bahrain’s telecommunication landscape and offer an unprecedented telecom experience to the community.”
As an industry first, the milestone reinforces Bahrain’s leading digital position in the region, and enhances Bahrain’s readiness for next generation technologies in support of Bahrain Vision 2030.
In his comment, Mr. Ulaiyan Al Wetaid, VIVA Bahrain CEO said that the aim of the live launch is to allow the public to get a feeling of what 5G technology brings to our life.
“This is a major turning point for Bahrain. We’re closer to unlocking the transformative opportunities of 5G and the powerful cross-industry solutions being tested at VIVA`s Innovation Center that will benefit all key growth sectors including health, education, transportation and much more.”
5G network is expected to make a quantum leap in future services and applications and will contribute in increasing the speed and performance of wireless networks. It will not only improve the connectivity between people and their phones or computers, but will also enable more sophisticated technologies such as IOT, Artificial Intelligence and robots.