Bahrain's telecommunication trends are keeping well with the global growth of information technology, said a report citing the Minister of Communications Shaikh Fawaz bin Mohammed Al Khalifa.

Shaikh Fawaz on Friday announced that figures from the International Telecommunications Union's report projected excellent growth for the sector this year, reported the Gulf Daily News, our sister publication.

There's a mobile penetration rate of 158 per cent with more than 1.9 million subscribers, reported by the second quarter in 2012.

Broadband penetration stands at 34 per cent with 413,000 subscriptions, said the report.

Mobile broadband subscriptions in the Kingdom have grown rapidly over the last three years, representing 60 per cent.

According to Brahima Sanou, Director of the ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau, the latest ICT figures show continued and almost universal growth in information and communication technology including mobile phone services, Internet, and Mobile Broadband services.

In a report released by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA), it was noted that mobile broadband services had increased by 570 per cent since 2010.

"Our goal in the Ministry of State for Communications is to enhance the availability and nature of telecoms services to meet the needs of the people in Bahrain," Shaikh Fawaz said in light of the report.

"We aim to narrow the gap between the Kingdom and those nations that perform at the high end of the scale, reaching a broader customer base and keeping costs down for the consumer."

Globally, the number of mobile phone subscribers stand at 6.8 billion with 3.5 billion residing in the Asia-Pacific region.

More than 2.7 billion are using the Internet, corresponding to 39 per cent of the world's population.

Among countries, Europe has the highest internet penetration rate at 75 per cent.

The majority of households in the Americas are online at 61 per cent, compared with around one third in the Arab states, Asia and the Pacific.

Meanwhile, the cost of fixed-broadband services has dropped by 82 per cent between 2008 and 2012.

But differences in broadband speed persist, with the highest speeds found in Asia and the lowest found in Africa, as well as in several countries in Asia, the Pacific, the Americas and some Arab States.-TradeArabia News Service