Omantel provides fixed-line, mobile, Internet, data and other telecommunication and IT services and manufactures and designs fiber optic cables, directly and through its subsidiaries in Oman.

Mobile services earned 58.4% of Omantel’s total 2008 revenues, amounting to OMR411.4 million (USD1.07 billion), which was a 12.64% annual increase; mobile operators interconnection services earned an additional 21%, Internet services earned 8.09% and fixed line services, 12.4%. The company increased annual net profits by 5.88% to OMR118.61 million (USD309 million), in 2008.

The company’s total 2008 subscribers increased by 13.4% to 2.11 million, with 274,178 fixed line subscribers or 12.9% and 55,767 Internet subscribers. Oman MobileOman Mobile, the subsidiary through which Omantel provides its mobile services, accounted for 80.94% of total subscribers, ending 2008 with a 15.2% increase to 1.708 million and a 5.94 % decrease in market share. Oman MobileOman Mobile lost its monopoly in 2004, when the Omani Qatari Telecommunications CompanyOmani Qatari Telecommunications Company (Nawras) was established.

Omantel completed its first international acquisition, in May 2008, when it purchased a 56.8% stake in the Pakistan-based fixed line and Internet service provider, Worldcall, for OMR73.5 million (USD191.5 million). The deal also included a 70.65% share in Worldcall Telecommunications Lanka, a subsidiary that operates a public payphone network in Sri Lanka.

Oman’s market liberalization was visibly reflected in this sector, when the Omani Qatari Telecommunications CompanyOmani Qatari Telecommunications Company was awarded the second fixed-line license, in November 2008, and six companies were awarded mobile reseller licenses by the Telecommunications Regulatory AuthorityTelecommunications Regulatory Authority in Oman, also in 2008. Omantel, signed with two of the six resellers.

The government announced, in August 2008, that it would sell a 25% stake in Omantel through a bid that was later canceled by the ministry of finance due to the economic downturn.