Muscat – The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has called on Oman to overhaul its two-decade-old telecommunications law and strengthen collaboration between regulators, ministries and private-sector stakeholders, stressing that outdated legal frameworks are hampering digital investment and innovation.

The findings appear in a country review published by the UN agency, which assessed Oman’s readiness for digital transformation. While the report credited Oman with outperforming regional and global averages on most regulatory benchmarks — including regulatory capacity and legal instruments for ICT markets — it identified good governance as the one area where the sultanate lags behind both Arab states and the global average.

The report’s central concern is the Telecommunications Regulatory Act, originally enacted in 2002. The ITU said the law was designed for a sector focused on traditional voice and connectivity services and does not give the regulator authority to govern emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, over-the-top platforms and advanced digital services. Mobile operators interviewed for the report described the law as a bottleneck and expressed frustration that a revised version has been under development for several years without a published timeline or publicly available draft.

The ITU made nine specific recommendations. Chief among these is completing the revision or replacement of the Telecommunications Law, which the agency said should establish a clear governance framework for new and emerging services while building in enough flexibility for future innovation.

The report also called for greater transparency in regulatory decision-making, urging authorities to publish memoranda of understanding, meeting records, and regulatory roadmaps so that operators and investors can plan with certainty. It recommended the creation of standing inter-agency working groups to address sectoral challenges jointly, and called for public consultations to begin earlier in the policy drafting process rather than after instruments have already been shaped.

Operators told ITU researchers that while they could submit feedback to the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, responses or outcomes were often not meaningful. They also flagged conflicting requirements from different government bodies on data privacy and cloud services as sources of uncertainty that limited investment.

The report acknowledged the fact that Vision 2040 and the National Digital Economy Programme provide a strong policy foundation. However, it said closing the gap between the ambitions and the legal and regulatory framework beneath them was now the priority task.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Transport, Communication and Information technology on Wednesday posted on its X platform that Oman has advanced six places from 39th to 33rd globally, ranking among the top three Arab countries, in the Digital Readiness Index issued by ITU.

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