The telecommunication industry of Oman is regulated by the Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (TRA) under the Royal Decree No. 30/2020. Among the regulatory activities of TRA, some mention-worthy is regulation of market with suitable licensing schemes, enacting related laws, with the regulation of prices it safeguards the interests of the public and partners, raising awareness by promoting the issue of the proper use of telecom services in Oman. Also, TRA controls electronic crime and looks over the increasing telecom density in the country of Oman.
The landline telephone and internet services across the Sultanate of Oman are dominated by the Oman Telecommunication Company, named as Omantel. Other than Omantel, the Qtel Company and its partners in 2005 got the license for providing telecom services in Oman under the brand Ooredoo (earlier the brand name was Nawras). There is a total of four telecom service provider in Oman, which offers internet services. Among them, Ooredoo, Friendi, Oman mobile, and Reina provides 4G services, whereas, Omantel in 2019 started providing 5G services over the country. The telecom markets of Oman have observed the popularity of 4G services over 3G, and users are also ready and eager for 5G availability. And telecom service provider in Oman like Omantel and Ooredoo were given the right to use a 100MHz of the 5G spectrum by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) of Oman.
Oman is one of the essential telecom hubs in the Middle East with access to several submarine cables because of its unique location between the continents of Asia, Europe and Africa. Recent news state that from 2023 to 2024, Oman will also get access to the submarine cable of 2Africa.The market of Oman was almost equally saturated by the two hotshot competitor telecom companies, i.e. Omantel and Ooredoo, but they are soon to witness a third Mobile Network Operator (MNO) competitor in 2020.
The third and new mobile network brand to enter the market of Oman in 2020 will be a partnership brand between Oman Future Telecommunications (OFT) and Vodafone Group. This branding strategy was made under the non-equity agreement, as a part of the Vodafone’s Partner Market program. OTF plans on leasing mobile towers from Oman Tower Company (OTC) so that they can cover more grounds of potential users when this new brand enters with a bang in 2020. These two companies’ joint forces resulting telecom service provider in Oman brand is presumed to improve Oman’s telecom market conditions and help in the development of the economy by bringing significant digital transformation in the country. Both companies are confident with the positive outcome in the future by implementing expertise on global technological and marketing aspects. They stated that the key focus of their partnership is the up-skilling of the Omani workforce.
The chances of penetration of the market are low because Oman already has a fixed infrastructure of broadband services. However, the National Broadband Strategy of Oman is trying to improve the fibre-based network infrastructure building, and it is estimated that by 2040 almost all homes and businesses will be connected to this.
As per statistics, the top telecom service provider in Oman:
- Omantel (as Omantel are the first telecom service provider in Omanand also the primary internet service provider of the country).
- Ooredoo (this telecom service provider in Omanhas been ranked as the best in test operator by P3, who are the global leader in the benchmarking and testing for mobile networks).
- Nawras (Ooredoo-Nawras)
- Huawei- UAE
- Motorola or as also known as TMP India
- Batelco
- Alkan CIT- UAE
- Golden Key Solutions
- Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (TRA)
- Friendi Mobile Oman
- Genius Solutions
- Advanse (Advanse-Nawras)
But all progress regarding telecom sectors in Oman has been profoundly affected because of the pandemic of the coronavirus outbreak in 2020. The downturn of several production and supply chains due to the pandemic has disrupted the workflow in the country. All work regarding 5G network might not ultimately go to vain but inevitably will be postponed and delayed and consumers will have to wait. Other than this, consumers are also facing the adverse effects of the pandemic regarding the price hike of products, and everyone is also tensed with the uncertainty of employment.
However, in this crisis, telecom services in Oman have witnessed higher traffic because of work from home conditions. But the long-term effect of the pandemic after industrial activities resumes in Oman, are hard to predict now. But with the crucial situations of the pandemic, online education, online health, and other solutions might develop, resulting in the optimum use of telecom services in Oman.