VIVA Bahrain, an STC Group subsidiary, achieved another key milestone since the beginning of its operations in March 2010. The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority in Bahrain announced that VIVA has achieved an advanced position in terms of quality of telecommunications services among other mobile telecommunications providers in Bahrain. This achievement comes as part of an independent report issued by the Authority in late 2010 through Directique, an independent consultation firm. The report evaluated and compared the various mobile telecommunications providers in Bahrain in terms of the end user and covering voice services, SMS, MMS, and data services where the providers have been assessed according to various key performance indicators over a four-week period. The Regulatory Authority said it was proven that VIVA customers enjoy the best and fastest voice and data services in the Kingdom of Bahrain. This report also underscored that the mobile telecommunications service in Bahrain is similar to that in Switzerland and better than the ones provided in France and Germany. The report was published in the Authority's website www.tra.org.bh. Commenting on this milestone achieved by VIVA, Eng. Saud Al Daweesh, CEO for STC Group, said "we are very proud of this achievement which is a testimony of the great capabilities of STC Group and is a fulfillment of our promise to provide added value to our customers whether in the Kingdom of Bahrain and across our international operations relying on our global status as one of the top 20 telecommunications groups in the world." Al Daweesh added that "the classification of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Bahrain proves VIVA's commitment to providing the best customer experience and at the same time, the results of this report reinforce the spirit of competition in the Bahraini market and also enhance VIVA's role in raising the benchmarks in the telecommunications industry and encouraging fair competition, all to serve the customers' interest." He further said the advanced classification achieved by the company bears a big responsibility for us to continue innovating and satisfying our customers that we have been honored by their selection of VIVA as the leading telecommunications provider in Bahrain. At the same time, it is another testimony supporting the key achievements that STC Group has been witnessing with a customer based exceeding 140 million in 10 countries across the world. This achievement is also added to the list of awards and accolades including the TMT Conference Award 2011 where STC clinched "Best Growth Story of the Year" due to its operations in Indonesia under the name AXIS, whereby AXIS was able to double its revenues in 2010.
