A recent study revealing that Bahrain’s mobile networks stand among the most resilient globally, significantly outperforming major European markets in handling peak traffic congestion, has also found distinct weather-driven network traffic patterns across the kingdom, writes Naman Arora.
In the cooler months, people spend more time outside using mobile data, putting more demand on cell towers.
In the hot summer, people stay inside and connect to home Wi-Fi, which gives mobile networks a break.
“The heat pushes users indoors, shifting traffic to Wi-Fi, and many expat workers return home for the summer, reducing traffic load on the networks at the hours when they would otherwise be stressed,” said the research study author and Ookla lead industry analyst for the Middle East and Africa region Karim Yaici.
The white paper, published by Ookla Research, found that networks in the Arabian Gulf showed more stability and resilience to peak traffic demand than most of Europe, but recommended that Gulf operators should shift their focus from top speeds to overall connection consistency under heavy pressure.
This would involve adding cell towers and strengthening indoor coverage for underserved users, while actively fixing local network bottlenecks to eliminate lag and buffering during rush hours.
naman@gdnmedia.bh
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