Mobile phone operators in Bahrain are investigating potential faults in their systems following widespread network disruption across the country, a report said.

They have been flooded with complaints from customers, who have been experiencing dropped calls, deteriorating voice quality and unstable Internet for weeks, according to the report in the Gulf Daily News, our sister publication.

It comes as the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) published an audit report on June 19 about the disruptions to mobile phone services in the country.

It ordered all telecommunication firms, including Bahrain's three largest providers, to clear up their lines and improve their performance.

Viva said it has upgraded its infrastructure and expanded its network to tackle the problem.

"As part of our continuous improvement in network quality, we perform periodic reviews to monitor the performance of the network to ensure we continue offering exceptional quality of service, the best coverage and the best network quality in the kingdom," said a spokeswoman.

"Over the past 12 months, we have also upgraded our core infrastructure network and have implemented multiple network expansions and upgrades to ensure that our network remains the best in Bahrain.

"To date, Viva's high quality of service has been achieved by continually deploying the latest network technology and by continuously expanding our network reach to offer the most resilient and best service to both the consumer and business segments."

The TRA order was issued after auditing the quality of mobile voice and mobile broadband services during May.

It found that two per cent of people who tried to make calls were unable to connect, while 1pc of the calls were "dropped".

This prompted the TRA to contact all operators last week and recommend immediate course of action. It asked the firms to investigate and report reasons for the level of "call failures" and "calls dropped" specific to their own networks.

The TRA also found people connected to mobile Internet face an increased rate of disconnection.

However, Batelco has requested more technical information about the report, saying they need details to address the issue of dropped calls and inconsistent Internet access.

"We are following up with the TRA to provide us with more specific details in this matter, and on how they reached such a conclusion," said a spokesman.

Technology

"Batelco continuously invests in the mobile network for improvement of coverage, quality of service and the introduction of state-of-the-art technology."

Zain welcomed the TRA report and said it will work to increase customer satisfaction.

"A mobile operator usually benchmarks the overall network against international best practices and works on maintaining and enhancing it," said a Zain spokeswoman.

"In a demanding technological world and with the heavy data growth, new standards should be set in order to excel customer experience. Zain Bahrain welcomes and will always take part in any initiative which will have a positive impact on customer experience." – TradeArabia News Service