Free Access to EGovernment Services for All Citizens and Residents

FREE Access to the E-Government portal & Ministry websites for all Batelco Fixed Line and Mobile Customers

Mobilk - In line with the National Day celebrations, and in an initiative that aims at providing free access to E-government services to citizens and residents, Batelco, Bahrain’s leading internet service provider and eGovernment Authority (eGA) jointly entered into a collaboration that will provide - for the first time - free web access to the E-Government portal &  Ministry websites  for all Batelco fixed line and mobile customers. This would include all web pages and electronic services provided from within the portals. The free access will also include those who do not have an active fixed broadband or mobile data subscription with Batelco. 

The key project, that supports Batelco and eGA’s ongoing commitment to deliver world class services to Bahrain will be a major contributor to the country’s social and economic development. Furthermore, the initiative is in line with the Kingdom’s 2030 Economic Vision and the government’s objectives that aim towards achieving a fully-automated electronic government, considered as one of the citizens’ rights. 

Batelco Bahrain CEO Rashid Abdulla and eGovernment Authority CEO Mohammed Al Qaed recently met at Batelco’s Hamala headquarters in the presence of officials from both organizations in order to discuss the free service facility. 

The Batelco CEO explained that Batelco was delighted to offer its customers free access to all government portals. 

“Through this partnership with eGovernment Authority we can raise the lifestyle standard in Bahrain and support the government’s aspiration to develop Bahrain as a centre of excellence in the region for established businesses and to attract new enterprises to invest or set-up organisations here,” said Mr. Abdulla.

“The combined high Batelco mobile and fixed line penetration rate in the Kingdom means that free access to the E-Government portal & Ministry websites is available to virtually everyone in the Kingdom” he added. 

“The initiative is the first-of-its-kind in Bahrain, and will without a doubt significantly benefit users of the government portals,” stated Mr. Al Qaed while praising Batelco’s keenness in satisfying their customers by providing higher quality services.  

“This initiative meets one of the numerous objectives of the new recently-launched National eGovernment Strategy 2016, which is to increase partnerships and private sector ICT readiness,” he added.

Mobile customers who wish to access other websites, outside the boundaries of eGovernment services, will be charged. Fixed line customers with no active broadband subscription will be redirected to Batelco’s prepaid portal and will be requested to purchase a Batelco prepaid card, in order to access other non-governmental websites. 

Batelco believes that extending such free-of-charge access facility to the government portals will benefit the citizens as well as residents of Bahrain and encourage the usage of  governmental services which is a national objective.