Nearly 400 licenses issued for telecom, and postal services in Oman

PHOTO

Muscat: Total investments in the telecommunications sector amounted is RO221.9 million in 2023, which includes 37% in fixed telecommunications services, 53.7% in mobile telecommunications services, and 9.3% in other services, according to the annual report of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA).

The report indicated that the TRA launched 12 public consultation documents during 2023, to involve beneficiaries and related parties and benefit from their views; to maintain a flexible regulatory environment that keeps pace with developments.

The report also indicated that the total grievances of beneficiaries during 2023 from the telecommunications sector amounted to 2,972, distributed as follows: 1,860 in bills, 831 in service quality, 111 in promotional offers, and 170 in numbers.

Telecommunications Sector

The report indicated that the telecommunications sector worked during 2023 to spread broadband networks throughout the Sultanate of Oman; The number of fifth-generation stations reached 5,238 stations, and the number of residential units covered by fiber optic networks reached 773,589 units.

The total number of valid communications permits during 2023 for various communications services was 377, represented by 41 licenses in the tracking and geolocation service, 6 in providing Internet of Things services, 267 in implementing services in the field of communications, 48 in establishing or operating private networks for personal use, five in exploiting and accessing inactive infrastructure, three in the regulatory experimental environment for communications services, and 2 in voice or video communications services via the Internet Protocol.

Postal Services

TRA issued licenses to provide postal services to 15 new companies; The total number of licensed companies in this sector will reach 63 companies during 2023, in response to the steady increase in the volume of incoming local and international mail. This has contributed to the sector providing more than 1,624 additional job opportunities with permanent contracts, of which Omanis filled 1,223 job opportunities during 2023.

The year 2023 witnessed several achievements, the most important of which are honoring the Authority among the distinguished government units for the year 2023; achieving high performance results in the indicators of the “Institutional Excellence System”, in addition to receiving the Digital Government Award for the Gulf Cooperation Council countries for the category of Best Digital Community Participation for the Public Consultations Project, and the Best Institution Achieving Government Digital Transformation Award within the Digital Excellence Award in the Government Sector 2024, as well as the Excellence Award in Enabling Market Growth from the SAMENA Telecommunications Council