Viva Bahrain, the newest player in the Kingdom's telecom sector, has announced a partnership with electronics giant Apple and the launch of the latest iPhone 4 in the country.

Chief executive officer Ibrahim Al Omar also said they had so far invested more than $500 million in Bahrain in offering a range of the latest services and other activities.

'By entering into this partnership with Apple, we have now become the first telecom operator in Bahrain to offer the state-of-the-art iPhone directly from the company, with a full warranty on both hardware and software.

'Apple-trained call centre attendants and engineers will always be on hand to directly service customers.'

Al Omar said though the iPhone has been available in Bahrain for a few years, it had been only through the grey market.

'Trained staff have been assigned at all our branches to handle iPhone related queries and services.

'This is a significant achievement for us and took six months in the making,' Mr Al Omar told the media at the company's Seef headquarters.

'This is yet another first after we launched our services in Bahrain in March 2010.'

He said a portfolio of tailored packages has been created for the iPhone, ensuring all their customers get the right tariff to best suit their needs.

'This is the most innovative phone in the world, featuring Apple's retina display, the highest resolution display ever built into a phone, resulting in crisp text, images and video, as well as FaceTime applications, which make video calling a reality.'

Al Omar said they are planning to launch a range of other hi-tech services in the very near future, in keeping with their commitment to the people. 'We are also committed to more investments in Bahrain in the future and looking at significantly enhancing the level of service,' he said.

'Our network is geared to support the very latest services, some of which have been introduced while others are on the way,' he added.-TradeArabia News Service