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Oman Telecommunications Report Q2 2009Product Type: Market Research ReportPublished by: Business Monitor International Published: June 2009 Product Code: R302-6406 Description This quarterly update on Oman’s telecoms market sees the introduction of several structural changes.These changes include a reorganisation of the various sections of the report and the adoption of a newformat for presenting the operator profiles. The Mobile Data section of the report includes new coverageof the development of mobile value-added services in Oman, as well as an overview of some of thesector’s recent contract wins. In this quarter, we have focused more attention on developing the mobilesections of our report, including the mobile operator profiles. In our next quarterly update, we plan tointroduce considerable revisions to the fixed-line and broadband sections of our report. According to the latest regulatory and operator data, Oman had 3.219mn mobile subscribers at the end of2008. This reflects full year growth of 28.8% based on the addition of 722,000 new customers during theyear. By the end of 2008, Oman’s mobile penetration rate had risen to 117.8%. The expansion of Oman’smobile subscriber base in 2008 was slightly lower than the 30% growth rate predicted by BMI. Although we have made some alterations to our mobile growth forecast for Oman, the general patternremains unchanged. We predict that the rate of subscriber growth will slow over the next five years,falling to around 19% in 2009. Meanwhile, we now predict stronger 3G customer growth over the nextfive years. Following the recent launch of 3.5G services by Oman Mobile, both of the country’s mobileoperators are now offering much higher data transmission speeds. By the end of 2009, the number ofactive 3G customers is expected to climb to around 3.5% of total mobile users. Key developments in Oman in recent months include the launch of MVNO services, in December 2008,by Majan Telecom. The company, which will offer services under its Renna brand, has signed a deal touse the network of Oman Mobile. Meanwhile, in January, it was reported that Oman’s government hadcancelled its proposed sale of a 25% stake in Omantel citing the difficult economic climate as its reason. As noted above, March 2009 saw the launch of Oman Mobile’s 3.5G (HSDPA) network. Althoughnetwork coverage is currently limited to Oman’s capital Muscat, the network supports peak downlinkspeeds of up to 7.2Mbps. Oman Mobile’s rival, Nawras Telecom (owned by Qatar Telecom (Qtel),announced an upgrade to HSDPA speeds of up to 7.2Mbps in July 2008. By mid-March 2009, Nawrascovered around 40% of the population with its 3.5G network and 97% of the population with its EDGEnetwork. Both Nawras and Oman Mobile are currently extending their high-speed HSDPA infrastructuresnationally. Oman has moved up one place in BMI’s latest set of Business Environment Rankings for the MiddleEast. Although Oman’s country risk score has fallen in the current quarter, a higher telecoms marketscore has contributed to Oman’s stronger overall performance. Table of Contents
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