Batelco issues apology over GSM network disruption

The affected areas included part of central Manama, King Faisal Highway, Seef area, Karbabad, most of Budiya Highway and villages, Hamala, and Central A'ali.

The disruption was due to a software failure that followed a smooth and successful migration to the New Generation Network (NGN) last night. The migration process is part of an ongoing upgrading programme of Batelco's networks aimed at providing better and more reliable services to all GSM Mobile customers in the Kingdom.

"We truly apologize to all customers for any inconvenience that this unexpected disruption could have caused them and we sincerely appreciate their understanding," said Batelco General Manager Corporate Affairs Ahmed Al Janahi.

"Our engineers and technicians worked hard and managed to restore the service to all affected areas. We assure our customers that we are exerting every effort possible to make sure such incidents do not occur in the future," he added.

Batelco recently began rolling out the state-of-the-art NGN technology as part of the company's plans to upgrade its existing networks to ensure provision of the best telecommunications and information services available in the world's markets.