Ooredoo Oman

Company Overview

Ooredoo Oman is a mobile network operator providing telecommunications services in the Sultanate of Oman. The company was founded in December 2004 as Nawras which following a successful IPO on 1 November 2010, became listed on the Muscat Stock Market (MSM) under the "ORDS" ticker. Ooredoo is majority owned by Ooredoo Q.S.C. and also has a number of significant Omani shareholders which ensures that the company is strongly integrated into the Omani society. Nawras rebranded to Ooredoo Oman inline with its parent entity in October 2018.

Ooredoo Oman, then Nawras, began providing 2G GSM services over the 900 MHz band in March 2005. 3G UMTS services began in December 2007 with the implementation of B1 (2100 MHz), with the network upgraded to support HSPA in July 2008 and DC-HSPA+ in March 2013. Shortly after Nawras activated a second 3G carrier, providing a B8 (900 MHz) HSPA+ network for improved coverage.

Using its 30 MHz of 2.3 GHz spectrum holdings it secured in 2009, the company began deploying WiMAX. However before activation Ooredoo Oman was granted 1800 MHz spectrum and launched its first commercial LTE service using B3 (1800 MHz) in February 2013. Afer refarming its WiMAX deployment, B40 (2300 MHz) LTE was activated in September 2014 and used as a fixed wireless home broadband service. In May 2015 the company announced the network had been upgraded to LTE-Advanced "4.5G", offering peak data rates up to 200 Mbps. While technical implementation is unclear, lacking additional spectrum at the time it is possible the company used 2C carrier aggregation of its 1800 MHz spectrum.

Ooredoo acquired additional 4G LTE spectrum in August 2015, securing spectrum in the 800 and 2600 MHz bands. In March 2016 the company announced implementation of a 10 MHz B20 (800 MHz) carrier. The activation of the company's B7 (2600 MHz) carrier is currently unconfirmed. Data rates were increased again in December 2018 with the network upgraded to LTE-A Pro with Massive MIMO.

Ooredoo Oman 5G

The company demonstrated Pre-5G (LTE-A Pro) technology in July 2017 at the Salalah Tourism Festival where it achieved data rates in excess of 1.2 Gbps. Ooredoo Oman was awarded 100 MHz in the 3500 to 3600 MHz band in late 2018 for the purposes of implementing an n78 (3500 MHz) 5G network.

Ooredoo Oman IoT

In April 2018 Ooredoo announced it had begun deployment of LoRa across its network. Oman uses the 863 to 870 MHz ISM spectrum for its LPWA networks.