All set for the second annual public hearing of the TRA Development Review Panel 2006

The members of this year's Panel are Prof. Martin Cave - Director of the Centre for Management under Regulation, Warwick Business School, United Kingdom, Mr. Ian Martin - Senior Telecommunications analyst at ABN AMRO, Australia, and Mr. Robert Bruce - Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Digital Strategies at the Tuck School of Business in Dartmouth, United States of America.

The event will be open to the public, but prior registration is encouraged due to the limited availability of seats. This can be done by downloading the registration form from the TRA website www.tra.org.bh, or alternatively by contacting the TRA on telephone number 17520044 or fax 17532125.

Prior to the public hearing, the Panel members will be meeting with interested parties and members of the industry for two days, starting 1 February. These meetings are part of the Panel's review of the telecommunications industry in Bahrain. The TRA will not be present at the meetings, so as to ensure that members of the industry are able to express their views freely on the progress of the TRA and raise issues of concern.

The Panel will then announce their findings and recommendations at the public hearing on 5 February. There will also be presentations by the industry at the public hearing, from (in alphabetical order): Batelco, Lightspeed Communications, MENA Broadband Services and MTC Vodafone Bahrain.

There will also be a presentation by the TRA highlighting the progress and issues of 2005. In addition, similarly to last year, the attendees of the public hearing will have the opportunity to address the Panel, in order to voice their concerns and express their views on the development of the regulatory regime in the Kingdom.

The General Director of the TRA, Mr. A. Andreas Avgousti, commented:

"We are looking forward to hosting this year's public hearing. This forum will give the industry and the public the opportunity, in a transparent manner, to engage in an open discussion on the issues facing the market. We believe that the input we will receive from this is invaluable to the TRA, and will certainly help us evaluate the priorities ahead of us as we move forward in establishing a competitive market. We encourage all members of the telecommunications industry, consumers and consumer groups to become part of this effort by attending the public hearing on 5 February."