By A Staff Reporter - MUSCAT -- The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) has issued a rejoinder to Omantel's recent press announcement announcing the launch of its '4G LTE Networks' in the Sultanate. In its statement, the regulator voiced the view that the Omantel announcement "may have created a wrong perception in the minds of general public about the introduction of 4G LTE services in Oman".
In a bid to "dispel any wrong impression" stemming from the Omantel announcement, the TRA issued the following clarification: "TRA has awarded 30 MHz of the frequency spectrum in the 2.3GHz band to Omantel for the provision of nomadic wireless broadband services under their licence of Fixed Public Telecommunications Services and not for the exploitation under Public Mobile Telecommunications Services Licence.
"This spectrum cannot be exploited for providing mobile services till such time the present Licensing framework is modified by TRA. "At present each individual licence for mobile or fixed services that were awarded to both Nawras and Omantel are regulated individually and therefore the spectrum awarded for fixed services is not allowed to be exploited for mobile service license.
"Omantel has not yet commissioned a network based on LTE technology. The TRA, however, had allowed Omantel to carry out a trial of the LTE technology for delivery of fixed broadband services only. "It is important to highlight that the so called 4G acronym generally refers to mobile networks. "It is, therefore, important to indicate that in Oman the above referred frequency spectrum has been allocated for fixed-line wireless services to both Omantel and Nawras (30 MHz each) but not for any 4G mobile services.
"Omantel, as per newspaper reports, had also stated that it is the first country in the GCC and second in the world to introduce LTE-TDD technology trial. "Many operators across the world have either launched LTE services or carried out extensive field trials covering LTE-TDD technology and as such claims made are not correct," the TRA rejoinder added.
© Oman Daily Observer 2010
