[1] When Batelco was founded in 1981, Bahrain had 45,627 telephone lines in use.
In 1985, the country's first fibre optic cable was installed.
[1] In 2002, under pressure from international bodies, Bahrain implemented its telecommunications law which included the establishment of an independent Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA).
[1] 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.
Telephone system: Radio broadcast stations: AM 2, FM 3, shortwave 0 (1998) Television broadcast stations: 4 (1997) Internet country code: .bh Internet hosts: 2,621 (2008) Internet users: 250,000 (2007) This article incorporates public domain material from The World Factbook (2025 ed.).