Bahrain Telecommunication Company (Batelco), the digital backbone of Bahrain, is the country's leading provider of national and International telecommunications and networked IT services, including internet and broadband products. With a history dating back to the country’s colonial past, Batelco was launched as a Joint Stock Company on July 1, 1981 under the aegis of the Govt. of Bahrain. Over the years, the company has built a substantial reputation for providing world-class telecommunications and information services to 650,000 business and residential customers (accounting for 67% market share) within Bahrain.

Batelco lost its monopoly in the domestic mobile market in December 2003, when Kuwait-based MTC Vodafone won the second GSM mobile license. Subsequently, its fixed line monopoly was broken when Bahrain based Lightspeed Communications and Kalaam Telecom were each granted fixed-line licenses, in 2005. Batelco has six branches in the Bahraini market; in addition it serves neighboring markets through participation in key investment initiatives to develop regional and international telecommunications. With an ongoing strategy to expand overseas, the company has joint venture operations in Jordan, Kuwait, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The company has invested USD 1.4 billion in Bahrain's telecom infrastructure over the past 26 years.