t 200 additional countries, some of which are directly
connected to Baku by satellite providers other than Turkey (1997)

Bahamas, The:
general assessment: modern facilities

domestic: totally automatic system; highly developed

international: tropospheric scatter and submarine cable to Florida;
3 coaxial submarine cables; satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat
(Atlantic Ocean) (1997)

Bahrain:
general assessment: modern system

domestic: modern fiber-optic integrated services; digital network
with rapidly growing use of mobile cellular telephones

international: tropospheric scatter to Qatar and UAE; microwave
radio relay to Saudi Arabia; submarine cable to Qatar, UAE, and
Saudi Arabia; satellite earth stations - 2 Intelsat (1 Atlantic
Ocean and 1 Indian Ocean) and 1 Arabsat (1997)

Bangladesh:
general assessment: totally inadequate for a modern
country

domestic: modernizing; introducing digital systems; trunk systems
include VHF and UHF microwave radio relay links, and some
fiber-optic cable in cities

international: satellite earth stations - 2 Intelsat (Indian
Ocean); international radiotelephone communications and landline
service to neighboring countries (2000)

Barbados:
general assessment: NA

domestic: island-wide automatic telephone system

international: satellite earth stations - 4 Intelsat (Atlantic
Ocean); tropospheric scatter to Trinidad and Saint Lucia

Belarus:
general assessment: the Ministry of Telecommunications
controls all telecommunications through its carrier (a joint stock
company) Beltelcom which is a monopoly

domestic: local - Minsk has a digital metropolitan network and a
cellular NMT-450 network; waiting lists for telephones are long;
local service outside Minsk is neglected and poor; intercity -
Belarus has a partly developed fiber-optic backbone system presently
serving at least 13 major cities (1998); Belarus's fiber optics form
synchronous digital hierarchy rings through other countries'
systems; an inadequate analog system remains operational

international: Belarus is a member of the Trans-European Line
(TEL), Trans-Asia-Europe (TAE) fiber-optic line, and has access to
the Trans-Siberia Line (TSL); three fiber-optic segments provide
connectivity to Latvia, Poland, Russia, and Ukraine; worldwide
service is available to Belarus through this infrastructure;
additional a