Omantel, Zain Launch Joint Venture “ZOI” to Provide Wholesale Services

Muscat: Zain Group and Omantel today announced the launch of a joint venture by the name of Zain Omantel International “ZOI”, an independent company that provides wholesale services in the telecommunications sector.

The press release pointed out that the venture is a first-of-a-kind. This groundbreaking partnership aims to revolutionize the wholesale telecommunications sector by offering a unique proposition that combines the strengths of both parties to deliver unparalleled service and support to customers worldwide.

The joint venture will cater to the end-to-end telecommunications needs of operators in the Middle East, as well as international carriers, data centers, hyperscalers, content, and cloud providers seeking services within the region and beyond.

ZOI will manage all international wholesale requirements of Zain and Omantel operations in eight countries, serving over 55 million customers. Furthermore, ZOI will optimize the existing wholesale businesses of both companies by reducing operating costs and increasing competitiveness through access to state-of-the-art low-latency and high-capacity services over its extended footprint.

Bader Nasser Al Kharafi, Zain Vice-Chairman and Group CEO said, “This strategic value-enhancing partnership reflects the next stage of industry collaboration and advancement, and represents another significant milestone of our ‘4Sight’ profitable growth strategy. It also demonstrates our commitment to transforming the business and creating synergies while extending our reach and capabilities to provide the highest quality services to our customers.”

Al Kharafi added, “ZOI is ideally positioned to evolve into a significant international player on the wholesale telecommunications scene that will benefit both Zain and Omantel on financial, commercial and operational levels.”

On his turn, Talal Said Al Mamari, Omantel CEO, added, “The joint venture with Zain is a testament to our unwavering commitment to transforming the international arm of Omantel group into a leading global provider, building on our existing position as a top regional wholesale player.”

He pointed out that, “ZOI is poised to become the primary gateway from our region to the rest of the world, leveraging the combined strengths of Omantel and Zain. With these differentiating factors, ZOI is the preferred partner with a truly unique presence in the international telecommunications landscape.”

It is worth mentioning that ZOI, in collaboration with the Omantel and Zain Group operating companies, will ensure that Zain and Omantel customers continue to experience high quality in international services, such as internet connectivity, voice, roaming, messaging and more. Some noteworthy projects that ZOI will undertake, along with its consortium partners include the development of Blue-Raman; Africa-1; Jeddah to Marseille (J2M) subsea systems and an extensive terrestrial network connecting most of the regional countries to the landing stations and data centers.