Bahrain Internet Market Tops 2.62m Lines
Business internet lines in Bahrain leapt 21.8pc in 2025, driving the total number of residential and commercial connections to a record 2.62 million even as household growth almost ground to a halt, new Telecommunications Regulatory Authority figures show.
The combined tally reached 2,623,834, up 8,056, or about 0.3pc, from 2,615,778 a year earlier. It was the highest figure in the TRA series stretching from 2015 to 2025.
Calculations show business lines rose from 12,288 in 2024 to 14,969 last year, an increase of 2,681. That was the biggest annual rise in raw numbers for the category across the 11-year series.
Household lines barely moved. They rose from 2,603,490 to 2,608,865, an increase of 5,375, or 0.2pc, after growing 3.8pc the year before.
Business connections still made up only about 0.6pc of all lines, against 99.4pc for residential subscriptions. Yet they supplied roughly a third of the net rise recorded during 2025.
The figures count subscriptions, not people, homes or firms. One user or business can hold several connections, while broadband figures cover fixed and mobile services. The 2.62 million total therefore cannot be matched directly against Bahrain’s population or number of households.
Over the decade, residential and business lines grew by 646,432, from 1,977,402 in 2015 to 2,623,834 last year. That amounts to growth of 32.7pc, or an average compound annual rate of about 2.9pc.
Residential lines accounted for almost all of that rise, climbing by 642,939 from 1,965,926 to 2,608,865, also up 32.7pc.
Business lines rose by 3,493 over the same period, from 11,476 to 14,969, a gain of 30.4pc.
The residential market did not climb in a straight line. Connections jumped 22pc in 2016 to about 2.4 million, then fell year by year until reaching roughly two million in 2020, about 16.3pc below the 2016 level.
The turn came in 2021, when residential lines rose 6.6pc. They jumped another 16.3pc in 2022 before growth slowed to 0.9pc in 2023, rose to 3.8pc in 2024 and then sank to 0.2pc last year.
Even after that slowdown, residential lines stood 30.1pc above their 2020 level and at a new high.
The latest rise of just 0.2pc points to a household market nearing a ceiling in line numbers, with future gains likely to rest increasingly on speed, capacity and data use rather than large jumps in subscriptions.
Their number fell from 11,476 in 2015 to 6,079 in 2018, a drop of about 47pc. It recovered to 7,033 in 2019 before slipping again to 6,451 in 2020.
Then came five straight years of growth. Business lines climbed to 7,505 in 2021, 9,191 in 2022, 10,928 in 2023, 12,288 in 2024 and 14,969 last year.
That leaves the business tally 132pc above its 2020 level and 146.2pc above the low reached in 2018.
The 21.8pc rise last year was the second-fastest annual rate in the series, behind the 22.5pc jump in 2022.
The growth comes as firms rely increasingly on cloud services, online trade, digital payments, artificial intelligence and connected devices, all of which demand faster links, greater capacity and dependable service.
Separate TRA figures covering the second quarter of 2025 put broadband subscriptions at 2,594,712, equal to a penetration rate of 163pc.
Dedicated broadband subscriptions stood at about 524,000, while fibre connections neared 182,000, equal to about 63pc of households.
Those figures cover a different period and use different categories from the annual line count, but they again show why subscription totals can run well above the number of people living in Bahrain.
Broadband service revenue stood at BD66 million in 2024, with business services accounting for 26pc of fixed broadband income, up from 18pc in 2023.
Average monthly revenue from each business subscription rose 26pc to BD68.5. The household figure fell 13pc to BD13.7.
That gives business lines far greater financial weight than their small share of the overall subscription count might suggest.
The figures come as Bahrain presses ahead with its sixth National Telecommunications Plan, which aims to make the Kingdom a ‘smart kingdom’ with widespread access to speeds above one gigabit.
Fibre coverage had reached 94pc of occupied households and 100pc of businesses by August 2023, according to the plan.
Targets include speeds above one gigabit for homes, symmetrical 10-gigabit links for businesses and full fixed-broadband coverage.
Bahrain also scored 97.5 points in the 2025 ICT Development Index.
The figures point to a residential market already close to saturation in raw line numbers, while businesses are taking an ever larger share of new growth and spending far more on each connection.
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