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    • .bh

    Country-code top-level domains

    Overview

    • .bh is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the Kingdom of Bahrain.
    • Introduced on 1 February 1994 and administered by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) through the .BH Domain Registry.
    • An Arabic-script internationalized domain name, .البحرين, was approved (noted in sources around 2019/2020).
    • Registrations are available directly at the second level and at third level beneath a set of reserved second-level labels; registrations are offered by local and international registrars.

    History

    • 1994: .bh was first delegated to the University of Bahrain Computer Center.
    • 1999: Delegation moved to the Bahrain Telecommunications Company (Batelco).
    • 2002: The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) was established by legislative decree.
    • 2008: The Minister of Telecommunications assigned TRA as the governmental agency responsible for management of the .bh domain.
    • 6 December 2011: TRA commenced a request to ICANN for redelegation of .bh; the redelegation process completed in March 2012.
    • Arabic-script ccTLD (.البحرين) was approved and reported in delegation records in the 2019–2020 timeframe.

    Usage and Audience

    • Intended use: entities connected with Bahrain.

    • Actual use: used in Bahrain; domain registrations are available through local and international registrars.

    • Typical users and sectors:

      • Businesses and commercial entities
      • Telecommunications and IT service providers
      • Educational institutions
      • Medical and healthcare services
      • Natural persons (personal/name domains)

    • Common second-level domains and their intended purposes:

      • .com.bh — businesses (individuals also allowed)
      • .net.bh — telecommunications and IT service providers (natural persons also allowed)
      • .info.bh — information provision services
      • .edu.bh — educational institutions
      • .med.bh — medical services
      • .biz.bh, .cc.bh — businesses (often for entities registered in Bahrain)
      • .name.bh, .me.bh — for natural persons (citizens or residents)
      • .org.bh — organizations licensed in Bahrain

    Registration Rules

    • Structure and eligibility:

      • Registrations are available directly at the second level and at third level beneath specified second-level labels.
      • Second-level registrations were opened for international registration in May 2022.
      • Third-level domain registrations under many second-level labels require local presence and relevant local trade licences.

    • Policy and content restrictions (selected rules as published by the Bahrain Domain Registry):

      • Domain names must not prejudice intellectual property rights or violate law, public morals, or public order.
      • Names must not offend countries, cities, celebrities, families, or famous trademarks, and must not be reserved names.
      • Domain names must not compromise national security, harm national interests, create discrimination, incite violence or crime, threaten public safety, spread rumors, or harm reputations or legal rights.
      • Additional requirements may be applied by the Authority in line with ICANN policies.

    • Allowed characters and label rules:

      • Domain names shall contain only letters (A–Z), numbers (0–9), and the hyphen (-), or combinations aligned with Internationalized Domain Name rules.
      • A domain name shall not be less than one field and not more than sixty-three fields (per published rules).
      • The hyphen (-) must not appear in the third or fourth position unless it corresponds to an Internationalized Domain Name in ASCII (Punycode).
      • Domain names must not start or end with a hyphen and must not contain spaces.

    • Governance:

      • Registration rules and a domain-name dispute policy are published by the .BH Domain Registry and the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority.

    Operator

    Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA)

    Whois

    % IANA WHOIS server
% for more information on IANA, visit http://www.iana.org
% This query returned 1 object

domain:       BH

organisation: Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA)
address:      PO Box 10353
address:      Manama
address:      Bahrain

contact:      administrative
name:         Technical Affairs Supervisor
organisation: Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA)
address:      PO Box 10353
address:      Manama
address:      Bahrain
phone:        +973 17520000
fax-no:       +973 17532125
e-mail:       dn@tra.org.bh

contact:      technical
name:         CTO
organisation: CentralNic
address:      Saddlers House, 4th Floor
address:      44 Gutter Lane
address:      London EC2V 6BR
address:      United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (the)
phone:        +44 20 33 88 0600
fax-no:       +44 20 33 88 0601
e-mail:       tld.ops@centralnic.com

nserver:      A.NIC.BH 194.169.218.115 2001:67c:13cc:0:0:0:1:115
nserver:      B.NIC.BH 185.24.64.115 2a04:2b00:13cc:0:0:0:1:115
nserver:      C.NIC.BH 212.18.248.115 2a04:2b00:13ee:0:0:0:0:115
nserver:      D.NIC.BH 212.18.249.115 2a04:2b00:13ff:0:0:0:0:115
ds-rdata:     42035 8 2 de6b7cef6b195f0aac140c56c68868105d8f05967342c96a8192efe7b433bd1e
ds-rdata:     17411 8 2 5585896549a2954516768f776e8a9e2610cbf5cbd7165389c0a5448435c71185

whois:        whois.nic.bh

status:       ACTIVE
remarks:      Registration information: 

created:      1994-02-01
changed:      2024-07-01
source:       IANA

    Registrars