The future of IP eXchange in Bahrain and the GCC

Mobilk - Due to the rapid transformation in the global telecommunications industry and the evolution of the telecommunications industry; traditional telecom operators are required to rethink their existing business models to secure new revenue streams. They are also required to seek innovative ways to reduce operational costs which will enable the provision of cost-effective services.

To cope with the tsunami of big data and the continuous changing consumer behavior patterns, operators are forced to rapidly transform and implement new technical concepts whilst leveraging on existing technologies and sunk investment. Undergoing such transformation, the telecom industry started using IP exchange (or IPX) as a telecommunications interconnection model for the exchange of IP traffic between mobile and fixed operators as well as other types of services (such as Internet). 

It is believed that IPX achieves two key goals for operators in the Kingdom and will enable all stakeholders to make a viable business by:

•Offering seamless interoperability of IP services between all types of operators delivering secure, high quality services between operators;

•Enabling operators to reduce costs; and consequently offering lower tariffs to end consumers.

The Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (TRA) will be hosting a workshop to present the results of the study to better understand the uptake of the IPX and its benefits to the region.  It will similarly communicate how local operators in the Kingdom of Bahrain and in the region may deploy such a concept leveraging their existing investments to lower their operational costs, with higher quality of service for services such as data roaming.

The workshop will be held on the 11th of December 2014