PUBLISHER: BuddeComm | PRODUCT CODE: 1040147
PUBLISHER: BuddeComm | PRODUCT CODE: 1040147
Oman - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses
Oman's MNOs in tower infrastructure sales
For many years Oman's mobile market was a duopoly between the incumbent telco Omantel and its challenger Ooredoo Oman. In February 2021, Vodafone Group and Oman Future Telecommunications consortium secured a license to operate the Sultanate's third network, with services being under the Vodafone Oman brand. The new operator has been able to extend its reach based on a tower leasing arrangement signed in 2020 with Oman Tower Company.
Oman has a modern mobile sector which comprises substantial coverage of both 3G and LTE networks. In February 2021 Omantel launched commercial 5G services, while Ooredoo Group has a five-year framework agreement with Ericsson to develop its 5G platform across the Group's ten markets, including Oman. The Covid-19 pandemic has caused a spike in mobile data traffic, which prompted Omantel to upgrade a number of sites from 3G to LTE, as well as build a number of additional 5G sites.
While Oman's fixed broadband infrastructure penetration is considered low, it is being improved with the building of fibre-based networks as part of Oman's Vision 2040 program.
Oman has also established itself as an important communications hub in the Middle East, with access to numerous submarine cables including the 2Africa submarine cable, which should become available during 2023-2024. The 9,800km Oman Australia Cable running from Muscat to Perth, with the potential for a branch line to Djibouti, is making progress and is expected to be completed in December 2021. This additional infrastructure will provide considerable additional bandwidth.
BuddeComm notes that the outbreak of the pandemic continues to have a significant impact on production and supply chains globally. To various degrees, the telecom sector during the coming year is likely to experience a downturn in mobile device production, while it may also be difficult for network operators to manage workflows when maintaining and upgrading existing infrastructure. Overall progress towards 5G may be postponed or slowed down in some countries.
On the consumer side, spending on telecoms services and devices is under pressure from the financial effect of large-scale job losses and the consequent restriction on disposable incomes. However, the crucial nature of telecom services, both for general communication as well as a tool for home-working, will offset such pressures. In many markets the net effect should be a steady though reduced increased in subscriber growth.
Although it is challenging to predict and interpret the long-term impacts of the crisis as it develops, these have been acknowledged in the industry forecasts contained in this report.
The report also covers the responses of the telecom operators as well as government agencies and regulators as they react to the crisis to ensure that citizens can continue to make optimum use of telecom services. This can be reflected in subsidy schemes and the promotion of tele-health and tele-education, among other solutions.
Key developments:
- MVNOs gaining a small market share;
- Helios Towers acquires 2,890 mobile towers from Omantel;
- Vodafone Oman receives its licence as Oman's third MNO, contracts Ericsson to provide and operate an LTE and 5G core RAN;
- Telecom regulator concludes significant telecom competition review;
- Two additional cable systems to be added to the Blue-Raman cable system;
- Ericsson secures 5G framework agreement with Ooredoo;
- Omantel launches commercial 5G services;
- Report update includes operator data to Q2 2021, regulator's market data to June 2021, Telecom Maturity Index analyses and charts, assessment of the global impact of Covid-19 on the telecoms sector, recent market developments.
Companies mentioned in this report include:
Oman Telecommunications Company (Omantel), Oman Mobile, Ooredoo Oman, Oman Broadband Company (OBC), FRiENDi, Majan Telecom (Renna), Integrated Telecommunications Oman (TeO), Awasr-Oman, Oman Future Telecommunications (OFT) consortium, Vodafone Group, Oman Tower Company (OTC).
Table of Contents
Key statistics
Regional Middle East Market Comparison
- Market characteristics
- Market Leaders
- Market Challengers
- Market Emergents
- TMI versus GDP
- Mobile and mobile broadband penetration
- Fixed and mobile broadband penetration
Country overview
Covid-19 and its impact on the telecom sector
- Economic considerations and responses
- Subscribers
- Infrastructure
Telecommunications market
- Market overview
- Oman Vision 2040
Regulatory environment
- Regulatory authority
- Fixed-line developments
- Revision of the telecommunication regulatory law - 2011-2015
- Telecom sector liberalisation
- Second fixed-line licence
- Third fixed-line licence
- Privatisation
- Interconnect
- Access
- Universal Service Obligation (USO)
- Royalty fees
- Competition issues
- Market competitiveness report
- Mobile network developments
- Second mobile licence
- Third mobile licence
- Reseller/MVNO licences
- Roaming
- Mobile Number Portability (MNP)
- Spectrum allocation
Mobile market
- Mobile market analysis
- Mobile statistics
- General statistics
- Mobile data
- Mobile broadband
- Mobile infrastructure
- Towers
- 5G
- 4G
- GSM, 3G
- M2M
- Major mobile operators
- Omantel/Oman Mobile Telecommunications (OMTC)
- Ooredoo Oman
- Vodafone Oman
- MVNOs
Fixed-line broadband market
- Broadband statistics
- Fibre-to-the-Premises networks
- Other fixed broadband services
- Fixed Wireless Access (FWA)
Fixed network operators
- Oman Telecommunications Company (Omantel)
- Ooredoo Oman
- Awasr
Telecommunications infrastructure
- Overview of the national telecom network
- Alternative infrastructure
- VoIP
- National broadband strategy (NBS)
- International infrastructure
- Submarine cable networks
- Satellite networks
Smart infrastructure
- Smart cities
- Smart grids
- Digital economy
- Data centres
- Cloud computing
Appendix - Historic data
Glossary of abbreviations
Related reports
List of Tables
- Table 1 - Top Level Country Statistics and Telco Authorities - Oman - 2021 (e)
- Table 2 - Oman - GDP and inflation - 2011 - 2021
- Table 3 - Change in the number of mobile number portings - 2011 - 2019
- Table 4 - Change in the number of mobile subscribers and penetration - 2011 - 2026
- Table 5 - Development of mobile ARPU - 2011 - 2021
- Table 6 - Change in the share of mobile subscribers by operator - 2012 - 2020
- Table 7 - Development of domestic mobile voice traffic - 2010 - 2020
- Table 8 - Development of mobile and wholesale mobile revenue - 2010 - 2020
- Table 9 - Change in the number of prepaid and post-paid subscribers (million) - 2011 - 2020
- Table 10 - Change in the number of SMS messages - 2010 - 2020
- Table 11 - Change in the number of MMS messages - 2010 - 2020
- Table 12 - Change in mobile ARPU - 2018 - 2021
- Table 13 - Development of domestic mobile data traffic - 2012 - 2020
- Table 14 - Change in average mobile data use per subscriber - 2018 - 2021
- Table 15 - Change in the number of active mobile broadband subscribers and penetration - 2011 - 2026
- Table 16 - Change in the number of mobile towers by platform - 2015 - 2020
- Table 17 - Growth in the number of M2M mobile connections - 2013 - 2020
- Table 18 - Change in the number of Omantel Mobile's mobile subscribers - 2016 - 2022
- Table 19 - Development of Ooredoo Oman's mobile ARPU (QAR / month) - 2013 - 2021
- Table 20 - Change in the number of Ooredoo Oman's mobile subscribers by type - 2012 - 2021
- Table 21 - Growth in the number of fixed broadband subscribers - 2011 - 2026
- Table 22 - Change in the number of fixed and fixed wireless broadband subscribers - 2019 - 2020
- Table 23 - Development of fixed broadband ARPU - 2017 - 2021
- Table 24 - Change in the proportion of fixed broadband subscriptions by data rate - 2019 - 2020
- Table 25 - Change in the proportion of fixed broadband subscriptions by platform - 2019 - 2020
- Table 26 - Increase in fixed broadband traffic - 2010 - 2020
- Table 27 - Change in the proportion of fibre broadband subscriptions by platform - 2017 - 2020
- Table 28 - Share by fixed-line revenue by major operator - 2011 - 2021
- Table 29 - Share by fixed-line subscribers by major operator - 2011 - 2021
- Table 30 - Development of Omantel Group's financial data (OMR million) - 2011 - 2021
- Table 31 - Development of Omantel Oman's financial data - 2011 - 2021
- Table 32 - Development of Ooredoo Oman's financial data (QAR million) - 2012 - 2021
- Table 33 - Change in the number of Ooredoo Oman's fixed-line subscribers - 2012 - 2021
- Table 34 - Change in the number of fixed lines in service and teledensity - 2011 - 2026
- Table 35 - Change in the number of VoIP subscriptions - 2016 - 2020
- Table 36 - Development of domestic fixed-line voice traffic - 2019 - 2020
- Table 37 - Change in fixed telephony revenue - 2019 - 2020
- Table 38 - Change in fixed telephony ARPU - 2017 - 2021
- Table 39 - Increase in international internet bandwidth - 2013 - 2020
- Table 40 - Historic - Oman - Fixed lines in service and teledensity - 1995 - 2010
- Table 41 - Historic - Omantel Group financial data (OMR million) - 2003 - 2010
- Table 42 - Historic - Oman - Fixed broadband subscribers - 2004 - 2010
- Table 43 - Historic - Oman - Mobile subscribers and penetration rate - 1995 - 2010
- Table 44 - Historic - Oman - Mobile sector total ARPU - 2005 - 2010
- Table 45 - Historic - Change in Omantel Oman's revenue by type (OMR million) - 2011 - 2018
- Table 46 - Historic - Oman - Total prepaid and post-paid subscribers - 2005 - 2010
List of Charts
- Chart 1 - Map of Telecom Maturity Index global ranking among countries in the Middle East
- Chart 2 - Middle East - Telecoms Maturity Index by country
- Chart 3 - Middle East - Telecoms Maturity Index vs GDP per capita
- Chart 4 - Middle East - mobile subscriber versus mobile broadband penetration
- Chart 5 - Middle East - Fixed broadband penetration versus mobile broadband penetration
- Chart 6 - Change in the number of mobile broadband subscribers and penetration - 2011 - 2026
- Chart 7 - Development of mobile ARPU (Q4) - 2011 - 2021
- Chart 8 - Change in the share of mobile subscribers by operator - 2012 - 2020
- Chart 9 - Development of domestic mobile voice traffic - 2010 - 2020
- Chart 10 - Development of mobile and wholesale mobile revenue - 2010 - 2020
- Chart 11 - Change in the number of prepaid and post-paid subscribers - 2011 - 2020
- Chart 12 - Development of domestic mobile data traffic - 2012 - 2020
- Chart 13 - Change in the number of active mobile broadband subscribers and penetration - 2011 - 2026
- Chart 14 - Change in the number of mobile towers by platform - 2015 - 2020
- Chart 15 - Development of Ooredoo Oman's mobile ARPU - 2013 - 2021
- Chart 16 - Change in the number of Ooredoo Oman's mobile subscribers by type - 2012 - 2021
- Chart 17 - Growth in the number of fixed broadband subscribers - 2011 - 2026
- Chart 18 - Development of Omantel Group's financial data (OMR million) - 2012 - 2021
- Chart 19 - Development of Ooredoo Oman's financial data (QAR million) - 2012 - 2021
- Chart 20 - Change in the number of Ooredoo Oman's fixed-line subscribers - 2012 - 2021
- Chart 21 - Change in the number of fixed lines in service and teledensity - 2011 - 2026
List of Exhibits
- Exhibit 1 - Generalised Market Characteristics by Market Segment
- Exhibit 2 - Middle East - Market leaders and market developments
- Exhibit 3 - Middle East -Market challengers and market developments
- Exhibit 4 - Middle East -Market emergents and market developments
- Exhibit 5 - Telecom Services Providers in Oman - Dec 2020
- Exhibit 6 - 2Africa submarine cable
- Exhibit 7 - 2Africa landing stations
- Exhibit 8 - Encouraging the start-up sector in Oman
