Bids in November for third mobile operator, says regulator

Muscat: Bidding procedures to select a third mobile operator in Oman have been finalised and the memorandum for the entry of the third mobile operator will be released on November 15, the Telecom Regulatory Authority (TRA) has said.
“Board has approved to release the information memorandum for the entry of the third mobile operator on November 15, 2016. The executive management has finalized all related procedures for this bidding,” the TRA tweeted on its official twitter handle.
This year in February, Dr Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Futaisi, Minister of Transport and Communications, had urged Telecom Regulatory Authority (TRA) to initiate the licensing process for the third telecom operator in Oman.
In a tweet on his official twitter handle while announcing the move, Dr Al Futaisi said the decision is aimed at boosting competition and providing more options to consumers.
According to latest government statistics, there has been a 5.4 per cent rise in the total number of fixed telephone lines in Oman by September.
That includes post- paid and pre-paid lines, public pay telephones, ISDN channels, VoIP and WLL connections.
Fixed postpaid connections rose by 7.8 per cent during the period to 350,290 lines while prepaid lines increased by 11.1 per cent to 62,227 by the end of September this year. However, the number of public pay telephones remained the same throughout the period at 6,801.
In contrast, there had been a marked 18.1 per cent drop in the number of ISDN channels during the period, which fell to 37,080 lines along with a 13.8 per cent decline in the number of WLL connections, which went down to 1,526 connections.
VoIP lines, on the other hand, recorded a marginal increase during the third quarter, reaching 540 lines in September as against 529 lines in July.