Internet Exchange licenses available in the Kingdom of Bahrain

In accordance with the licensing regime in the Kingdom, there will be no restriction on the number of licenses granted.

The Internet Exchange license allows the license holder to establish, operate, manage and maintain an internet exchange. In other words, this license allows interested companies to establish these exchanges on a commercial basis whereby Internet Service Providers (ISPs) can connect to them for a fee. Under the Telecommunications Law there is no longer the obligation on ISPs in Bahrain to connect to any Internet Exchange. It will be left to each ISP to decide whether or not to connect to an Internet Exchange.

It should be noted that this license does not cover the provision of voice calls - a different type of license is required for providing voice services.

Currently, there is only one internet exchange in the Kingdom - the Bahrain Internet Exchange (BIX), which was established in 2003 by Decree No. 47 of 2003. BIX was established as per the requirement in the Telecommunications Law and had an exclusivity period until April 2006, up to which time no other licenses could be granted.

The TRA will be following the same process as outlined in the Telecommunications Law for assessing licensing applications and deciding on whether to grant the license or reject the application.

The TRA has also issued a guidance note together with the relevant application form on the new license which is available through its website (www.tra.org.bh). The generic form of the license itself is also available through the TRA's website.