Broadest Choice, Widest Coverage, Superior Quality

Muscat 13th April 2013: At a press meeting, Samy al Ghassany Chief Operating Officer of Omantel re-iterated Omantel's commitment to provide customers with the best broadband experience. Omantel has already and will continue to provide the broadest choice, the widest coverage and superior quality of broadband services.

Broadest Choice:

"We aim to provide all customers with a broadband service which fits their specific requirements, leveraging our fixed and mobile networks. Our range of offerings is wide, and we trust we can offer something for everyone" says Samy al Ghassany.

For light and occasional users, which typically uses broadband on sporadic basis, and with low volumes, Omantel  offers mobile broadband package from R.O 1 with a 1 GB allowance and Home Broadband services from R.O 7/= per month.

For the connected users, which always want to stay in touch, and who often has a smartphone or a tablet at hand, Omantel offers mobile broadband package for R.O 5/= with 1 GB included and a Mada 10 package which comes with 500 MB of included data in addition to 200 minutes of voice.

"For the connected users, our unlimited Home Broadband is uniquely positioned. It provides everyone at home with the opportunity to download as much as they want." says Samy al Ghassany.   Omantel´s Home Broadband, is offered at various speeds and from R.O 20/= per month inclusive of fixed line rental and free minutes of voice usage.

For multimedia and gaming users, who typically have high requirements also for download speeds,  Omantel provides Home Broadband packages with speeds up to 40 Mbps with unlimited download as well as Mobile Broadband packages for up to 30 GB of monthly usage. With Omantel, Mobile broadband for 3.5G and 4G has the same price.

Omantel is one of the first operators in the region to introduce LTE technology. End of 2012, Omantel also introduced the LTE FDD technology using 1.8 GHz spectrum which had been made available for 4G services.

"We took an important decision to adopt LTE FDD technology as this is in line with global and regional trends. This will ultimately benefit our customers, as majority of the smartphones and devices support the LTE FDD version particularly in 1.8 GHz spectrum range", Samy Al Ghassany added.

The adoption of FDD enabled us to introduce more devices including the 4G enabled smartphones and modems from Samsung, Nokia and Huawei. These smartphones and devices allow our customers to truly enjoy the benefits of mobile broadband, be it based on 3.5G or 4G technology.

"When we introduced 4G mid 2012, it was a stand alone technology. Now, the network technology and devices have matured and we can uniquely offer our customers a seamless 3.5G and 4G service. This involves two aspects. Any customer who downloads will seamlessly and automatically switches from 4G and 3.5G and vice versa. And for the 4G smartphone users, when they receive a voice call, the call will automatically be managed by our 3.5G network." Samy Al Ghassany added.

Currently, Omantel provides its broadband services, across the Sultanate of Oman, based on the broadest range of fixed and mobile network technologies. Omantel´s network is continuously and cost effectively built out to cater to emerging customer requirements. 

Widest coverage

"We are committed to expand our broadband networks as we already built out our mobile networks. Our aspiration is to provide broadband coverage to 95 % of the population. Currently, we can provide broadband services to 88 % of the population." Samy Al Ghassany says.

In the meeting, Omantel illustrated the current and targeted (by end of 2013) broadband population coverage across the Sultanate, including Muscat, Salalah, Batinah, Buraimi, Duqm, Ibra, Ibri, Musandam, Nizwa, Bahla and Sur. Updated coverage maps for 3.5G and 4G are available on www.omantel.om.

Superior Quality:

Addressing customer´s quality experience, Samy Ahmed Al Ghassany said, "Quality has always been a priority to us as we continuously work to improve our customers' experience."

Investments in high-speed redundant networks are critical to ensure a high quality experience. Omantel has already invested in a redundant nationwide backbone network as well as a global network consisting of 9 submarine cable systems. This currently provides for 50 GPBS international connectivity.

At the same time, the quality experience also relates to network build out in particular in dense and high traffic areas. For such areas, Omantel has upgraded its mobile network with up to three times more capacity. In addition, Omantel, through its unique network position, has managed to attract global content providers to host their servers in Oman.

"We are proud to be one of the leading providers of hosting services for the global or regional content providers. This is not only important for Oman, but it provides a value for our customers as well as, currently, more than 30 % of our traffic is served locally" Samy Al Ghassany added.

Finally, the service experience relates to the available speeds for accessing broadband services. Currently, Omantel´s 3.5G network is capable of delivering speeds at 7.2 Mbps. As for Omantel´s 4G LTE network, no speed caps are applied. For fixed broadband services, Omantel offers packages up to 24 Mbps through ADSL technology and up to 40 Mpbs through Fiber technology.

Best broadband experience

"Ultimately, the promise we would like to extend to our customers is to provide the best broadband experience. Our commitment has been and is to relentlessly work to provide more choice, broader coverage and a superior quality. And we recognize the importance of always meeting and exceeding our customers' expectations." Samy al Ghassany concluded.

Omantel is the leading provider of broadband services in the Sultanate of Oman connecting individuals and corporate customers in different regions through advanced fixed, mobile and Internet network. By offering innovative products and unmatched after-sales service, Omantel has the largest customer base in the Sultanate with more than 2.95 million customers. Omantel has been recently selected as the winner of the "Platinum Award for Quality and Best Trade Name" by European "OtherWays" Association for the quality of its network and efforts made to improve the customer experience.

For more information, please visit our site www.omantel.om

For more information, please contact:-
Mohammed Al Salmi
Senior Manager Corporate Communications
Omantel
Tel +96824244658
Fax +96824240111
GSM +96899879879
Email Mohamed.salmi@omantel.om

© Press Release 2013