News

Bahrain Becomes Among The First To Achieve Nationwide 5G Coverage

Published

6 years ago

February 6, 2021

bahrain becomes among the first to achieve nationwide 5g coverage

Associated Press

Bahrain’s Ministry of Transportation and Telecommunications recently reported that the island nation had become one of the first countries in the world to accomplish nationwide 5G coverage. Two of its three mobile operators now provide high-speed internet service to all of the nation’s 1.5 million population.

The Ministry of Transportation and Telecommunications expects the nationwide 5G coverage to generate new opportunities for streaming, gaming, and supply chain technologies.

“Rapid access to information is essential to innovation, particularly for next-generation services,” said Kamal bin Ahmed Mohamed, Bahrain’s Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications. “In this way, 5G is a crucial step in Bahrain’s ongoing transition from a net consumer to a net producer of technological innovation,” he added.

Thanks to its strategy of flexible regulation of the telecoms sector, Bahrain was able to attract 787 million BHD in investments (more than $2 billion) between 2009 and 2019, and the country’s ICT sector now accounts for nearly 3 percent of its entire GDP.

Now that the country has achieved nationwide 5G coverage, it will be more attractive in the eyes of technology companies interested in providing data-driven services in the region, helping it strengthen its position as a regional and global ICT leader.

Full nationwide 5G coverage is in line with Bahrain’s comprehensive economic vision, described in a document entitled The Economic Vision 2030. The document highlights, among other things, the importance of technology for ensuring the sustainability of a vibrant private sector and attractive innovators and entrepreneurs from around the globe.

Also Read: Thales Deploys Its Security Solution At Bahrain International Airport

Last year, Bahrain became home to the region’s first hyper-scale data center after the launch of the AWS Middle East Region by Amazon. Considering that there will be over 1 billion 5G connections by 2023, the Gulf kingdom is in an excellent position to meet its digital transformation goals.

News

Samsung And Spotify Offer Free Premium Deal In MENA

Nearly seven in ten streams in the region come from 18-to-34-year-olds — the audience Samsung is hoping to entice into its ecosystem.

Published

6 days ago

August 7, 2026

Nour Nasir

Samsung

Samsung has announced a partnership with Spotify spanning the Middle East, North Africa, and Türkiye, bundling Spotify Premium with select devices across its ecosystem. The headline offer — up to four months of Premium for free — is a first for the region.

Customers in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Türkiye who buy any OLED or 98-inch television, or any Galaxy S or Z series mobile device, get four months of Spotify Premium. The offer, tiered by market and device, is available at retail and on Samsung.com, and redeemed through the Samsung Promotion and Samsung Members apps.

For Samsung, the strategy is less about free music than about lock-in. The Korean tech giant’s pitch is continuity: a track starts on a Galaxy smartphone through Galaxy Buds on the commute, moves to a Samsung TV and soundbar in the living room, and stays controllable from a Galaxy Watch. The more seamlessly music travels between those devices, the harder it becomes to swap any one of them for a rival’s.

“Technology should bring people closer to the things they love, and few things connect people the way music does,” said Omar Saheb, Regional VP of Marketing and Online Business at Samsung Electronics MENA. The partnership, he added, gives customers “a genuine reason to choose Samsung for the experience, not only the product”.

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For subscribers, Premium brings the usual package: ad-free listening, offline downloads, richer audio quality on Galaxy Buds and Samsung sound devices, and Jam, which lets friends build a shared queue.

“At Spotify, we are always working to make every listening moment feel more personal, meaningful, and worth it,” said Rami Jamal, Head of Partnerships at Spotify for South Asia, Middle East, and Africa.

The demographics go a long way to explaining the strategy. Across MENA, Türkiye, and Pakistan, nearly seven in ten Spotify streams come from listeners aged 18 to 34, according to the company — precisely the audience Samsung wants inside its hardware ecosystem before buying habits harden.