Batelco: When able to attack you must seem unable

By Sun Tzu from the Art of War

When able to attack you must seem unable

When you are in the battlefield it is wise to make the enemy feel you are not able to attack to let him gain confidence and go arrogant while you hide your winning cards for a counter attack. That's what the giant telecommunication in Bahrain (Batelco) did.

When menatelecom launched their 8Mbs speed Internet service in Nov 2008, at that time Batelco had only a 4Mbs.

Some of Batelco's customers churn defected to mena. Batelco enabled mena to enjoy this quick small victory and go arrogant.

Batelco waited few more months before it launched a 10 Mbs package even cheaper than mena's 8 Mbs and much more reliable.

Later we learned that this 10 Mbs package was already implemented by Batelco and was under testing when mena came to the market.

Now mena is struggling with the growing numbers of their customers and their service is getting worse everyday. Flip-Flop Customers are going back to Batelco.

Great strategy and a direct hit

P.S. I am not a fan of either side, I just admired Batelco's approach.