Bahrain, and the rest of the Gulf countries could very soon be experiencing faster and most importantly affordable Internet. A marine cable laid by a company known as Gulf Bridge International (GBI) is finally complete, and is technically live and ready (as of 19th Feb, 2012). It connects the countries in the Gulf region: Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar (GBI's HQ), UAE, Kuwait, Oman, Iran and Iraq. Furthermore it then connects to countries outside the Gulf for international connectivity, Italy (Europe, eastern US) and India (Asia, western US). Right now it can carry 5.8 terabits PER SECOND and its design supports 10Tbps!
In Bahrain, GBI has partnered with Batelco to manage the landing station. There should be no worry with Batelco disputing access to the cable (as it once did with FLAG), since many providers are now connecting through Viva's wholesale services (connectivity through STC's vast international providers) that is managing GBI's landing station in Saudi Arabia (as STC).
How soon should we expect to see faster Internet? With LTE (up to 100Mbps) being commercially deployed around April by Viva and probably soon after by Batelco and so on, so hopefully in that time range. Fingers crossed Bahraini providers (Zain an exception) give up transfer caps!
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