Oman – Telecommunication Overview

Demographics

Population: 2.6 million

GNI per capita: US$ 6610 as per

Profile of the population : 3,80,000 Indians

Major Infrastructure Project Underway :

Telecom History

Regulatory Authorityhttp://www.tra.gov.om/test1/index.htm

WirelineThere is a plan to introduce competition in this sector to counter the monopoly on OmanTel in this sector. Under the terms of Oman's commitment to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the regulator was aiming to introduce competition to the fixed telecoms sector by the start of 2004. This has not been done but there is a move in 2006 to introduce competition in this sector

WirelessOMTC's parent Omantel is the only operator authorized to operate an international gateway, and Nawras is obliged to route international calls through it. The regulator has ruled that interconnection charges should be cost-based although a profit margin is still permitted.

BroadbandIn April 2006 the TRA made a statement addressing the blocking of unlicensed voice services by Omantel. It stated that IP telephony/VoIP can only be provided by 'class one' fixed line telecoms license holders as stated in the Telecommunications Act issued under Royal Decree 30/2002. Omantel remains the only company in the Sultanate licensed to provide public voice services and has full rights to curb any illegal voice operating activities.

Details of Traffic & Subscribers

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World Bank Figures

Variable Oman Column1 India Column2

 

(Group: Middle East and North

Africa)  

(Group: South Asia)  

  actual normalized actual normalized

Total Telephones per 1,000 People, 2004 412.6 4.12 84.5 6

Main Telephone Lines per 1000 People, 2004 94.9 2.35 40.7 6

Mobile Phones per 1,000 People, 2004 317.7 5.29 43.8 6

Computers per 1,000 People, 2004 46.6 3.53 12.1 6

Households with Television (%), 2004 79.2 2.35 37 6

Daily Newspapers per 1,000 People, 2000 n/a n/a 60 6.67

International Internet Bandwidth (bits per person), 2004 n/a n/a 11.4 5

Internet Users per 1000 People, 2004 96.7 4.71 32.4 8

Price Basket for Internet (US$ per month), 2003 23.6 5.88 8.7 8

Availability of e-Government Services (1-7), 2006 n/a n/a 3.55 7.5

Extent of Business Internet Use (1-7), 2006 n/a n/a 4.6 8

ICT Expenditure as % of GDP, 2005" n/a n/a 5.91 5

Subscriber Projections (if Possible)Refer to the excel sheet Excel Files\MiddleEast_CompanyWise_Subscriber_Base.xlsx

ILD (Outgoing Minutes)Refer to the excel sheet Excel Files\MiddleEast_Outgoing_Traffic.xls

Major Players

Oman Mobile Telecommunications Company (OMTC)

OwnershipOmantel is wholly owned by the state

Services OfferedWireless : The bulk of OMTC's subscriber base (around 75% at the end of March 2006, up from 68% at end-2004) is signed up to its 'Hayyak' pre-paid service, and revenues from the pre-paid sector made up well over 50% of the total in 2005, up from 34% in 2002. OMTC sees a decline in ARPU as inevitable as the number of pre-paid subscribers continues to grow. In June 2006 it launched a promotion offering Hayyak SIM cards free of charge with certain handsets, and followed this at the beginning of August by reducing the tariffs of its post-paid 'Mada' packages.

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Tariffs1. For IDD dialing rates to India refer to Excel Files\MiddleEast_CompanyWise_Tariff.xlsx

Other InterestsNone

OmanTel ( Oman Telecommunications Company)

Ownership70 % state 30% other investors

Services OfferedWireline: As well as traditional voice services for residential and corporate subscribers, Omantel provides pre-paid home phonecards, dial-up internet access ('Omannet'), pre-paid internet cards ('Al Multaqa'), cybercafé services, ISDN and ADSL ('PowerNet') connections, leased lines, managed data networks and VSAT services. It also operates a network of around 6,700 payphones, and its pre-paid fixed line service is growing in popularity, with 31,359 users as of May 2006, up from 25,422 at the beginning of the year (12,300 at end-2004).

Broadband: In addition to voice services, Omantel provides dial-up internet ('Omannet'), pre-paid internet cards ('Al Multaqa'), cybercafé services, ISDN and ADSL ('PowerNet') connections, and leased line internet access, managed data networks and VSAT data services.

Other InterestsOmantel has raised its international profile through a series of tie-ups with overseas operators. In May 2004 it signed an agreement with India's Reliance Group subsidiary FLAG Telecom to lease capacity on the latter's extensive international fiber-optic network, and the pair have activated two landing stations in the Sultanate for submarine links stretching to Egypt in the west and Hong Kong in the opposite direction. In August 2005 FLAG's FALCON undersea cable system was rolled out from Seeb to Reliance's landing station on India's west coast, and two months later Omantel collaborated on a project to extend a second submarine cable from Khasab to the Gulf Cooperation Council states and Iran. A further FALCON/FLAG cable rollout was initiated in April 2006 to connect Oman with Europe and the Americas via Egypt, and in July Omantel launched a project to directly link Seeb to Karachi in Pakistan via a 900km submarine cable, in partnership with Pakistan's Trans World Associates (TWA). Alongside this project, the Seeb landing station is being upgraded, giving it the status of a multiple link hub for FALCON, FLAG and TWA. Omantel also provides interconnectivity with submarine cable systems SEA-ME-WE 3, Indo-Gulf and Finjairh-Jusk. It has a partnership agreement with Swedish firm MCA, in place since March 2005, to offer international corporate voice, internet, data and video services via IP-VSAT technology.

Nawras Telecom

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Ownership

Nawras must contribute 12% of its annual gross revenues to the government's national telecoms fund.

Services OfferedWireless : Nawras' concession allows 3G services (it is technology-neutral). On 21 December 2005 it announced it had completed its first successful W-CDMA test call, and it has since expanded a pilot 3G networks to cover selected areas in the main cities of Muscat, Salalah, Sur, Nizwa and Sohar. Nawras is currently trialing 3G video calling and internet browsing with selected customers in the Muscat area, and is expanding the scope of the trial across the country, with a commercial launch a possibility before the end of 2006. Swedish vendor Ericsson has been chosen as its main supplier of 3G network equipment.

Tariffs1. For IDD dialing rates to India refer to Excel Files\MiddleEast_CompanyWise_Tariff.xlsx

Other InterestsNone

News1. Former monopoly Oman Telecommunications Company (Omantel) said yesterday that it was

considering buying ‘a big share’ in a Pakistani telecom company to expand outside its home market.

2. Omantel, currently the country’s only licensed ISP, has launched a network of 20 Wi-Fi hotspots across the capital Muscat. The service is available to all post-paid internet subscribers. According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms database, Omantel had 13,000 ADSL subscribers at the end of 2006.

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3. Second Emirati cellco Du, which is to launch services next month, has inked an interconnection pact with Omantel, the incumbent in neighbouring gulf state Oman. The deal covers voice interconnection and international data services. The exchange of traffic between the two operators will take place via the FALCON submarine cable

4. Omani incumbent Omantel is interested in acquiring an equity stake in FLAG Telecom, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Indian giant Reliance Communications. FLAG is seeking to divest up to 20% of its share capital to raise USD200 million.

5. Work has begun on laying the submarine sections of Flag Telecom's FALCON fibre-optic cable system, to link the Middle East region to India. Cable laying operations will stretch 1,700km from Al Seeb in Oman to Reliance Infocomm’s landing station on India's west coast. The cable loop will commence carrier services in the last quarter of this year.

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