TRA prepares for mast permitting project

The authorization of new and existing masts and towers was addressed at a workshop hosted by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA). 

The workshop was held June 15-16 at the TRA headquarters -- and attended by anxious stakeholders.

Dignitaries from the Ministry of Transportation and Telecommunications, the Ministry of Municipalities, the Supreme Council for Environment, the Civil Aviation Affairs and the Bahrain Defense Force also took part in the workshop.

“Since assigning the responsibility of governing and permitting telecommunications masts and towers by the new prime ministerial decision number 45 of 2015, TRA has worked closely with the government planning authorities to design the necessary permitting processes and engineering specifications,” Mohamed Alnoaimi, TRA director of technical and operations, said. “It is expected that the new processes and specifications will enable the deployment of environment friendly towers while ensuring the availability of latest wireless technologies which in turns should contribute into achieving the goals of the government forth national telecommunication plan.”

The goal of the mast permitting project is to highlight Bahrain as the first country within the MENA region to establish and implement a functional regulatory and permitting outline. 

“In collaboration with the planning authorities, TRA has completed the design of all necessary business processes that should be used for permitting new and existing masts,” project manager Adel Alshowaikh said. “The recent workshops were important for TRA to discuss with the government planning authorities the documents and drawings required when applying for masts permits by operators.”

With the completion of this project, innovative telecommunications wireless networks will be able to facilitate future technology and services to residents of the region.

“TRA is also working to introduce a centralized mast information system that should maintain all masts information and automate the permitting processes between the TRA, government planning authorities and operators,” Alshowaikh said. “The system will speed up the permitting process and provide on line performance monitoring dashboards.”