Bahrain has one of the cheapest fixed voice and mobile tarffis in the Arab and Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, said a study by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA).

The study, commissioned by TRA on behalf of Arab Regulators Network (Aregnet), was undertaken by Teligen, an independent consulting firm specialising n tariff comparisons.

Bahrain has seen a 40 per cent drop in the broadband prices since 2010 while its mobile tarrifs fell by 25 per cent, said the TRA in its update of the retail price benchmarking study of telecommunications services in Arab countries.

Commenting on the results, TRA’s consumer affairs manager Ghada Al Qassab said: “It is obvious from the benchmarking study that competition in Bahrain is delivering benefits to consumers through a variety of telecoms services and increasingly competitive prices.'

'It is also encouraging to see Bahrain performing well when compared with other Arab countries and with OECD in some benchmarks,' she remarked.

Al Qassab said based on the time series provided in the study the prices for some services have gone down significantly in the last four years.

'However there are still some areas that require closer attention and in particular higher speed broadband services and leased lines,' she pointed out.

'This study is important to understand how we are doing in achieving our mission of developing a competition-led market for the provision of innovative communications services, available to all,' she added.

The benchmark compares the costs of baskets of telecommunications services for different consumer profiles (e.g. low, medium, high usage), said Al Qassab .

It is comprehensive in terms of services and geographic coverage, and includes fixed voice services, mobile services, leased lines, broadband, and for the first time mobile broadband.

It covers all Arab countries, and also includes comparisons with the OECD countries. Residential and business tariffs are analysed, she added.

For Bahrain, Al Qassab said the main insights of the study are the following:

*Fixed voice tariffs:Bahrain is one of the cheapest Arab countriescompared with other Arab and OECD countries in terms of the cost of a basket of fixed voice services.
*Mobile tariffs:Mobile prices in Bahrain have fallen by up to 25 per cent since 2010. Bahrain compares well with other Arab countries
*Leased line tariffs: Leased line prices in Bahrain are similar to prices in the Arab region, although by OECD standards, leased line tariffs in Bahrain remain high.

TRA in its comments said the competitive leased line services were important in order to ensure Bahrain remains an attractive business location.

On the fixed broadband tarrifs, the study said Bahrain saw its broadband prices fall by up to 40 per cent between the 2010 and 2011 studies. However, the broadband services remained significantly more expensive than the OECD average, it added.

Interestingly, TRA said Bahrain has amongst the lowest mobile broadband prices in Arab countries

In its final comments, the TRA study said the prices for telecommunications services in Arab countries have generally fallen during the 2010-2011 period.

However even as prices have been falling in other parts of the world, there remains an often substantial difference between prices in Arab countries and prices in OECD / European countries, it added.-TradeArabia News Service