Viva Bahrain, owned by Saudi Telecom Co. (STC), expects data to account for at least half of revenue within two years from a quarter now.
A Reuters report said the country’s No. 2 telecom operator by income became the third player in the island’s saturated market, but managed to win customers by undercutting rivals – after launching in Bahrain in 2010.
Telecom operators’ average revenue per user (ARPU) is falling in Bahrain, in line with global trends as customers make fewer conventional calls and texts in favor of instant messaging and Internet phone calls, which carry lower margins.
Viva 4G is helping it counter the decline in ARPU by attracting more customers with high data usage. In January 2014, Viva said its mobile customers can take advantage of LTE 4G services for free from January 6th until the end of February 2014, after which the service is available as an add on for BD 5.
Viva CEO Ulaiyan Al-Wetaid said data would provide 50 percent of its revenue within two years, from 25 percent now.
“Revenues from data have grown significantly,” he said, without giving further details. Wetaid said Viva’s revenue in the first half of 2014 increased 15 percent from a year earlier.
Mobile broadband penetration in Bahrain was 128 percent of the population at the end of 2013 – equating to 1.28 subscriptions per person – according to the industry regulator. That compared with about 27 percent globally and 75 percent in the developed world, according to the International Telecommunication Union.
Mobile broadband accounts for 90 percent of all broadband use there.
STC’s 2012 annual report states Viva’s revenue was SR992 million ($264.5 million) in 2012, while an STC bond prospectus this year says Viva’s 2013 annual revenue was 1.2 billion riyals, which is a 21 percent rise on the year before.
In comparison, Bahrain Telecommunications Co.’s (Batelco) home operations suffered a 7 percent fall in revenue to 190.6 million dinars ($505.57 million) over the same period.
Batelco went about almost 12 months without a permanent chief executive following the resignation of the previous CEO in May 2013 and other senior executives left the company last year.
Revenue at Zain Bahrain, a subsidiary of Kuwait’s Zain, rose 5 percent annually in 2013 to $213 million, the parent firm’s earnings statement shows.
