Bahrain
Power & telecom standards in Bahrain
Connectivity Overview
Tempest Telecom offered dial-up internet access, WiFi hotspot access and broadband ethernet access in Bahrain. We also offered Iridium satellite Internet and Voice access in Bahrain for communications in rural areas without infrastructure.
Bahrain uses 230V at 50Hz. Power outlets are type G and telephone jacks are RJ-11.
Dial-up Internet Access
Tempest Telecom provided local dial-up access numbers in Bahrain at $0.155/minute. Travelers could connect using any standard modem with an RJ-11 telephone adapter.
WiFi Hotspot Access
Tempest Telecom provided WiFi hotspot access in Bahrain at $19.95/day for unlimited browsing.
Adapters & Power
A Type G (British 3-pin) adapter is required for travelers from North America, Europe, and most of Asia.
Standard RJ-11 jacks are used. Most international modems will connect without an adapter.
Bahrain at a Glance
- Capital
- Manama
- Phone Code
- +973
- Voltage
- 230V / 50Hz
- Power Plug
- G
- Phone Jack
- RJ-11
- Currency
- Dinar
- Dial-up
- $0.155/min
- WiFi
- $19.95/day
About connectivity in Bahrain
Bahrain uses 230V/50Hz with the British Type G plug — a legacy of British colonial wiring standards from the pre-1971 Protectorate era. The phone jack is RJ-11. Batelco (Bahrain Telecommunications Company, founded 1981) was the historic monopoly; the post-2002 sector liberalization brought Zain Bahrain and STC Bahrain (formerly Viva) as competitors.
Bahraini commercial Internet emerged in 1995 through Batelco as the sole licensed ISP through the late 1990s. ADSL rolled out from 2002, and the country's small geographic footprint enabled rapid broadband adoption. Mobile data dominates current access; Bahrain has one of the highest mobile penetration rates in the world.
The Bahraini prepaid international calling-card market through the 2000s served the substantial expatriate workforce (approximately 50% of Bahrain's 1.5 million population). South Asian (Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, Nepalese), Filipino, and Egyptian migrant labor populations sustained per-destination card brands.
Tempest Telecom served Bahrain through dial-up POPs in Manama. The country's position as a regional financial-services hub and the US Naval Forces Central Command headquarters generated substantial business-traveler and defense-contractor Iridium customer demand.
Modern Bahrain has near-universal FTTH coverage with mature 4G LTE / 5G.
Tempest's services across Bahrain, 1997–2012
Tempest Telecommunications operated international connectivity services in Bahrain between 1997 and 2012 under a unified prepaid account that absorbed multiple service types onto a single customer credential. Customers in Bahrain drew from the same balance for pre-paid international voice calling, RADIUS-authenticated dial-up Internet roaming, metered Wi-Fi hotspot access, Iridium and Thuraya satellite voice, and Inmarsat BGAN and Thuraya data terminals. An attempted kiosk-payment federation (PATN, 1998) extended the same architecture to public Internet terminals but failed to reach scale.
Both Iridium (global LEO) and Thuraya (regional GEO) satellite voice were available in Bahrain from approximately 2001, alongside global BGAN data from late 2005.
Nearby countries in Middle East
Iran · Iraq · Israel · Jordan · Kuwait · Lebanon · Oman · Qatar