Bahrain’s mobile networks stand among the most resilient globally, significantly outperforming major European markets in handling peak traffic congestion, according to a recent study.
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.
“Gulf countries rank highly in the Speedtest Global Index for mobile thanks to their advanced telecom infrastructure and high 5G adoption levels,” noted the research study author and Ookla lead industry analyst for the Middle East and Africa region Karim Yaici.
Ookla is a US-based connectivity intelligence and network diagnostics firm, best known as the company behind Ookla Speedtest.
Their study revealed that while the kingdom’s telecom infrastructure delivers top-tier speed and median stability for most users, operators still face targeted performance bottlenecks during cultural events like the Holy Month.
During Ramadan, the study found that network demand surges around sunset or Iftar as families call loved ones, send messages, and stream video content with speeds dropping to about 60 per cent of their overnight baseline before picking back up late at night.
“The telecom market in the Gulf enjoys high investment and high earning levels,” Mr Yaici noted. “Conversely, the European telecom sector faces severe capital constraints, low average operator margins, and lagging 5G standalone deployment.”
Four Gulf nations – Bahrain, the UAE, Qatar, and Kuwait – dominated the Speedtest Global Index for mobile performance in the first quarter of the year.
Ookla’s peak-hour congestion framework also evaluated how networks maintain performance when traffic spikes.
Bahrain recorded a mobile congestion rating of 17.9, significantly outperforming the European average score of 28.8 and beating established European markets such as Denmark (19.6), Germany (28.8) and the UK (30.7). This reflected a major year-over-year improvement for the kingdom, whose congestion score peaked near 38 in Q3 2025 before dropping sharply following large-scale infrastructure investments, 5G stand-alone deployments, and 5G advanced rollouts across the region.
The study noted that while high baseline speeds ensure that speed drops are inconsequential for most subscribers, network queuing during peak demand can negatively affect experience for users who are not on the 5G network.
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