One in three businesses in Bahrain switched its mobile service provider last year, up from just three per cent in 2011, found a new survey by the regulator.

This was done primarily due to better value for money, found the business users survey conducted by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) last year, said a report in the Gulf Daily News (GDN), our sister publication.

It also found that as many as 39 per cent of respondents said they procure information and communications technology (ICT) services from different providers compared with only 20 per cent in 2011.

The TRA survey also found a slow rise in the percentage of businesses conducting tendering process.

A majority (76 per cent) of businesses use a digital subscriber line (DSL) service to access the Internet with 84 per cent of them having a connection of more than two mbps.

Satisfaction with Internet services has improved in most areas, with 97 per cent of businesses happy with overall service levels (up from 75 per cent in 2011).

Overall, more than 90 per cent of businesses in Bahrain are satisfied with their telecom services, the survey found.

It was done during June and July last year and covered a representative sample of 252 respondents.

The survey examined the access to and usage of different telecommunications services.

This included fixed lines, mobile phones and Internet services by business users as well as measuring the extent to which business users are satisfied with their telecommunications services.

A report released by the TRA which is available on its website (www.tra.org.bh/) also compares the results of last year's survey with the results of similar surveys undertaken in 2011 and 2007.

"It is clearly evident that businesses in Bahrain benefit from the increasingly competitive offers of affordable, innovative, and high-quality telecommunications services," TRA director of market and competition Mohamed Al Binali said.

The results of the survey provide the regulator with a holistic view of access, usage and satisfaction of the telecommunications services in the business sector, he said.

According to Mr Al Binali, this was an important input for the TRA's analysis of the market and decisions aimed at ensuring that business users got a communications environment that enriched the commercial fabric. - TradeArabia News Service