November 10, 2009 | Work has begun on Zain Bahrain’s ambitious network upgrade to the region’s first Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology being delivered by Nokia Siemens Networks. This upgrade will enable Zain Bahrain customers to enjoy faster data downloads and enhanced customer experience, thanks to its transition to an all-IP, flat network through the introduction of Internet High Speed Packet Access (I-HSPA) as a first stage, and then the Middle East Region’s first Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology. The new technology is expected to vastly boost Zain’s state-of-the-art services through improved voice, data and multimedia services.

Zain Bahrain customers will find a dramatic improvement in accessing the internet with speeds of up to 14 Mbps in the first stage with I-HSPA, and then even higher speeds in the second stage with LTE. There will also be a dramatic improvement in coverage throughout the Kingdom, where ongoing infrastructure development necessitates parallel development of the mobile network. Zain customers will continue to experience the best quality service wherever they are.

Zain Bahrain Network Director Esam Zainal said the project was progressing well and added that although all efforts were being made to keep service interruptions to the minimum, customers may sometimes experience minor service degradation or occasional dropped calls while the work is carried out.

"We value the top-class customer experience that Zain Bahrain customers always enjoy and will naturally do our best to ensure that the move to the new technology is seamless. However, there will inevitably be some small percentage of dropped calls and service interruptions. We request customers to report these to us so we may track them and correct them," Zainal said.

The move to LTE technology will enable Zain Bahrain to be the first mobile operator in the Middle East to offer this totally new experience in mobile broadband services, he noted.