Bahrain telecommunications company 2Connect will have its licences restored, it was revealed last night.

The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) confirmed to our sister newspaper Gulf Daily News (GDN) the company, whose licences were ordered cancelled on March 22, could continue to offer its services to customers.

'The deadline for them to cease operations by April 23 stands cancelled,' TRA information and communications technologies director Ahmed Aldoseri said, without commenting further.

Earlier, a TRA statement said it intended to issue a resolution to cancel its previous one which revoked the telecommunications licences.

The TRA set on March 22, a March 27 deadline after it announced all licences of the company were being withdrawn. While no reason had been given for the action, sources said it was taken as a result of unspecified security threats. The deadline was later extended to allow all 2Connect customers to smoothly move their services to other operators.

Last week it emerged 2Connect could still be able to continue using its services even if its licences are revoked after it was announced the company was close to agreeing a tie-up with Bahrain-based Next Generation Network Solutions (NGNS).

Company managing director Fahad Al Shirawi said 2Connect and NGNS had a common objective to jointly develop and deploy services utilising both companies' resources and technology, assuring business continuity to all clients. He said the arrangement will form the basis for a new generation of services, to provide unique solutions and bring high-quality products to Bahrain.-TradeArabia News Service