Telecommunications in Bahrain officially began in 1981 when the Bahraini government founded the Bahrain Telecommunications Company. Since then, other companies such as Zain and VIVA have entered the telecommunications sector.
History
When Batelco was first founded in 1981, Bahrain already had 45,627 telephone lines in use. By 1982, the number reached 50,000. In 1985, the country's first fibre optic cable was installed. Batelco enjoyed being a monopoly in the telecommunications sector for the next two decades. 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 broke when the TRA awarded a license to MTC Vodafone, which later re-branded itself as Zain. In January 2010, VIVA (a subsidiary of STC) started operations in Bahrain.
Telephonic services
Telephones - main lines in use: 194,200 (2006)
county comparison to the world: 124
Telephones - mobile cellular: 1,116,000 (2007)
- 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: .bh
Internet hosts: 2,621 (2008)
- country comparison to the world: 135
Internet users: 250,000 (2007)
- country comparison to the world: 124
See also
- Bahrain
References
 This article incorporates public domain material from the CIA World Factbook document "2009 edition".