Telecommunications in Bahrain are provided by the Bahrain Telecommunications Company, trading as Batelco, as well as other companies such as Zain and Stc Bahrain. Prior to 1981 telecommunications services were provided by two separate departments: national services were provided by the Bahrain Telephone Company and international services by Cable & Wireless of the United Kingdom. These were combined in 1981 to form Batelco. Since then, other telecommunications companies have entered the market.

History

When Batelco was founded in 1981, Bahrain had 45,627

telephone lines A telephone line or telephone circuit (or just line or circuit industrywide) is a single-user circuit on a telephone communication system. It is designed to reproduce speech of a quality that is understandable. It is the physical wire or ot ...

in use. By 1982, the number reached 50,000. In 1985, the country's first

fibre optic An optical fiber, or optical fibre in Commonwealth English, is a flexible, transparent fiber made by drawing glass (silica) or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a human hair. Optical fibers are used most often as a means to ...

cable was installed. Batelco was a monopoly in the telecommunications sector until 2003. By 1999, the company had around 100,000 mobile contracts. In 2002, under pressure from international bodies, Bahrain implemented its telecommunications law which included the establishment of an independent Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA). In 2003, Batelco's monopoly over the sector ended when the TRA awarded a licence to MTC Vodafone, which later re-branded itself as Zain. In January 2010,

Viva Bahrain stc Bahrain (previously VIVA Bahrain) is a telecommunications company based in Bahrain. It is owned by the Saudi Telecom Company (stc Group) and started its commercial service in March 2010. It is headquartered in Manama, Bahrain. History On ...

, which later re-branded into Stc Bahrain (a subsidiary of

STC STC may refer to: Education * Saint Theresa's College (disambiguation), any of several institutions * St. Thomas' College, Matale, Sri Lanka * S. Thomas' College, Mount Lavinia, Sri Lanka * Scott Theological College, Kenya * Sha Tin College, H ...

) started operations in Bahrain.

Telephonic services

In 2006, there were 194,200 telephones main lines in Bahrain. :''county comparison to the world:'' 124 In 2007, there were 1,116,000

mobile cellular A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whil ...

contracts in Bahrain. :''county comparison to the world:'' 132 Telephone system: *''general assessment:'' modern system *''domestic:'' modern fiber-optic integrated services; digital network with rapidly growing use of mobile cellular telephones * ''international:'' country code - 973; landing point for the Fire-Optic Link Around the Globe (FLAG) submarine cable network that provides links to Asia, Middle East, Europe, and US; tropospheric scatter to Qatar and UAE; microwave radio relay to Saudi Arabia; satellite earth station - 1 (2007)

Broadcast radio

Radio broadcast stations: AM 2, FM 3, shortwave 0 (1998)

Broadcast television

Television broadcast stations: 4 (1997)

Internet service

Internet country code A country code top-level domain (ccTLD) is an Internet top-level domain generally used or reserved for a country, sovereign state, or dependent territory identified with a country code. All ASCII ccTLD identifiers are two letters long, and al ...

: .bh Internet hosts: 2,621 (2008) :''country comparison to the world:'' 135 Internet users: 250,000 (2007) :''country comparison to the world:'' 124

References