The Bahrain Telecommunication Company (Batelco) has the capability to enable the people of Bahrain to access the Internet in public places by radio link on fashionable handheld-computer devices (PDAs) at download speeds up to five times faster than the 3G mobile-phone promise.
A trial involving lounges at Bahrain International Airport, a major shopping mall and a number of hotel lobbies is about to be rolled out in the Kingdom. Batelco will be staging demonstrations in the Kingdom, using the popular ipaq Pocket PC.
The company will be using wi-fi technology to provide radio hotspots that will connect handheld-computer devices, and laptop computers, straight to the Internet, enabling users to surf the net and send and receive e-mail – without the need of cables and phone-sockets.
Industry watchers say 3G has much to answer for round the world. The purchase of hugely expensive 3G licences crippled some European telecomms giants, such as BT and Deutsche Telekom. And mobile players, globally, are tending to back away from 3G plans, which demand massive amounts of capital before they can become reality. — (menareport.com)
© 2002 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
