'High usage' slows down Internet in Bahrain

Bahrain's Internet services have been affected over the last two days, reportedly due to 'very high usage', it has emerged.

Batelco yesterday apologised to its Broadband customers for any service degradation they might be experiencing, while an official at Zain Bahrain said its Internet lines were working 'over capacity' and were hence slow.

An official at VIVA also confirmed there was 'extremely high usage' for the last two days and services had been affected.

Batelco Group media relations general manager Ahmed Al Janahi said the company's technical teams were working to restore full connections.

'We appreciate our customers' co-operation and understanding while we strive to restore full services, which we hope to do as soon as possible,' he said.

The Zain official said there was a system overload on the lines, but they were trying to solve the problem.

There had been a lot of people using the Internet over the last two days, said the VIVA official.

'It has reached its limit and is slow. However, we hope full connectivity will be restored soon,' he said.

The overload is mainly because of a very large number of people using the Internet to download and upload videos and watch live feeds of protests and rallies organised in several parts of Bahrain for the last three days, according sources.