Bahrain mobile operator Zain and Swedish technology vendor Ericsson have expanded their strategic partnership to deploy advanced 5G solutions, including Ericsson's Local Packet Gateway with Edge User Plane technology, Telecoms reported on December 23.

The partnership complements wider Gulf trends where telecommunications operators and equipment vendors, including Orange and Ericsson in Spain, increasingly deploy network slicing and edge solutions to support critical services and industrial digitalisation.

The deployment is designed to deliver ultra-low latency, optimised performance and more secure, resilient connectivity across Zain Bahrain's network.

"Our collaboration with Ericsson marks another important milestone in Zain Bahrain's journey to advance the Kingdom's digital ecosystem," Zain Bahrain acting Chief Executive Officer Ammar Al Ketbi stated.

Petra Schirren, president Gulf at Ericsson EMEA, stated that the partnership "enables advanced use cases that require near-instant connectivity and robust network performance".

The 5G edge rollout will support industrial digitalisation, AI-driven predictive maintenance, autonomous systems and real-time monitoring, accelerating adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies as Bahrain pursues its Economic Vision 2030 strategy anchored in sustainability, fairness and competitiveness.

The LPG solution's dual-mode 5G Core user plane function positions Bahrain to improve network efficiency and reduce latency bottlenecks, giving enterprises and public agencies tools to transform operations.

The Edge User Plane technology promises faster traffic handling and secure data transmission, underpinning Bahrain's ambitions for a connected economy.