Omantel

Company Overview

Omantel is the Sultanate of Oman's incumbent telecommunications services provider. Founded in 1980 as a wholly state-owned enterprise, today the company is publicly traded, with the state retaining a 51% majority share.

The company implemented 2G GSM over 900 MHz in 1996, and launched 3G UMTS services in March 2009 over B1 (2100 MHz). Omantel's 3G network was upgraded to HSPA+ in 2011, and B8 (900 MHz) added in certain areas in December 2013. 4G LTE began in July 2012 with the activation of a TDD B40 (2300 MHz) service. The network was expanded shortly after with a B3 (1800 MHz) carrier in December that year. In April 2015 Omantel announced commercial launch of LTE-Advanced with up to 200 Mbps theoretical peak downlink. The company secured additional B7 (2600 MHz) and B20 (800 MHz) spectrum in August 2015, however service activation is unclear.

LTE-A Pro trials were conducted in May 2016, with the company successfully demonstrating peak data rates in excess of 1 Gbps.

Omantel IoT

In April 2016 the company announced a partnership with Sigfox to deploy its network nationwide. The two companies formed a joint venture, Internet of Things LLC, which operates under the mOmkin brand. By May 2018 mOmkin announced it had achieved 70% coverage of the country.

Omantel 5G

In partnership with Ericsson, the company showcased 25 Gbps mmWave 5G in November 2017. Omantel was awarded 100 MHz in the 3400 to 3500 MHz band in late 2018 for the purposes of implementing an n78 (3500 MHz) 5G network. In March 2019 the company confirmed network readiness for 5G.