Oman telecom sector revenues reaches RO 409 million
Muscat: The total revenues of the telecommunication sector in Oman amounted to about OMR 409 million by end of the first half of 2024 , according the statistics issued by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority(TRA).
Statistics showed that mobile communications revenues amounted to 249 million and 420 thousand Omani riyals, while revenues collected from fixed communications services amounted to 159 million and 840 thousand Omani riyals, recording an increase of 3 percent compared to the same period in 2023.
With regard to mobile communications services in the Sultanate of Oman, the number of mobile phone subscriptions until the first half of 2024 amounted to about 6 million and 940 thousand subscriptions, of which 73 percent are prepaid and 27 percent are postpaid, and the number of broadband subscriptions amounted to about 5 million and 84 thousand subscriptions.
The number of fixed-line telephone subscriptions increased by 2 percent to reach 441,000 subscriptions by the end of the first half of 2024, while the number of fixed broadband subscriptions increased by 7 percent to reach 576,000 subscriptions.
The number of 5G stations in the Sultanate of Oman until the first half of this year reached about 5,431 stations distributed across the various governorates of the Sultanate of Oman, an increase of 19 percent compared to the first half of 2023, which amounted to 4,566 stations.
The total number of grievances regarding mobile communications services escalated to the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority during the first half of 2024 was about 966 grievances, and the Authority was able to recover about 38 thousand Omani riyals, while the total number of grievances regarding fixed communications services was 888 grievances, and the Authority was able to recover 26 thousand Omani riyals for the benefit of the beneficiaries.
With regard to postal services, the number of outgoing express postal items reached 229,000 by the end of the first half of 2024, an increase of 21 percent, while the number of incoming items reached 1,470,350, an increase of 78 percent, and the number of local items reached 1,787,938, an increase of 11 percent.
Mahmoud bin Omar Al-Zadjali, in charge of managing the Strategic Planning Unit at the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, explained that the Authority aims to cover more than 90 percent of residential units and projects distributed across all governorates in the Sultanate of Oman with the fifth generation service by the end of 2024.
He stressed in a statement to the Oman News Agency that there is no real decline in mobile communications services in the Sultanate of Oman, as the change between the first half of 2023 and the first half of 2024 in the number of subscribers is a slight and natural change of 1 to 2 percent.
He attributed the increase in the number of complaints escalated to the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority regarding mobile and fixed telecommunications services during the first half of this year to the issuance of the regulation regulating the rights of beneficiaries of telecommunications services, which facilitated the procedures for escalating complaints to the Authority, and granting this regulation a set of rights for beneficiaries and more obligations on licensees, and the success of the awareness campaigns organized by the Authority to raise awareness about the rights of beneficiaries and the obligations of service providers and the digital transformation in the mechanism for submitting complaints, as an electronic system was launched that contributed to facilitating and accelerating the procedures for escalating and adjudicating complaints.
The person in charge of managing the Strategic Planning Unit at the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority said that the Authority viewed this increase in complaints positively as an indicator of the effectiveness of the procedures and the increased confidence of beneficiaries in the Authority’s ability to restore their rights.
It is noteworthy that the Sultanate of Oman advanced 26 ranks in the Telecommunications Infrastructure Index, which is one of the axes of the E-Government Development Index issued by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, so that the Sultanate of Oman became ranked 22nd globally after it was ranked 48th in 2022.
The Telecommunications Infrastructure Index is one of the most important international telecommunications indicators, as it measures several sub-indicators, including mobile phone subscriptions, the percentage of individuals using the Internet, active mobile broadband subscriptions, and fixed and mobile broadband prices.
