Oman Broadband Company (OBC) looks to cover 85 per cent of the Muscat Governorate and 30 per cent of the Sultanate by 2020, said the company’s director general of projects Salim Bin Said Al Alawi.
The company aims to provide broadband network for more than 60,000 units this year, in addition to the 145,000 residential and commercial units that have been already provided with broadband.
OBC will announce the details of the broadband projects for 2018 by the end of 2017.
The projects that have been opened for operators during the first half of 2017 in the Muscat Governorate includes Al Athaibah, Al Ghubrah, Al Qurum, Madinat Al Ilam, Wadi Uddy, Al Hamriyah, Al Wadi Al Kabir and some areas in Al Seeb.
The work is underway at the projects in Al Khoudh (near Knowledge Oasis Muscat), Al Khoudh 7thblock, 2nd stage of the Wilayat of Al A’mirat, part of Al Ghubrah, Al Kawthar district near Al Seeb Club, Sultan Qaboos University, Al Khuwair, 1st stage of Al Maabailah South, Al Maabailah 7th and 8th blocks, he added.
The projects will be availed to customers of the telecom companies from the fourth quarter of 2017 and up to the second quarter of 2018.
More than 55 per cent of the Muscat Governorate will be covered with broadband by the end of 2017. While there are more than 31,000 active users of the service, the number is expected to increase to about 40,000 by the end of 2017, Al Alawi added.
The company has started works outside the Governorate of Muscat and is connecting the optic fibers to the Wilayat of Al Musannah. It has two projects in the Governorate of Dhofar (Al Sa’adah) in Salalah, which is expected to be completed by the end of 2017.
There is another project in Salalah City whose civil work will be completed by mid-2018.
“OBC is also implementing a project at the Industrial Estate and the city center in Sohar. There is also another project to provide broadband services to Khasab. More wilayats will be provided with the service in 2018,” he continued.
The company is connecting broadband network to homes and link cities through a special line that passes the expressway between Muscat and Al Rustaq, and afterwards to Ibri, in coordination with the Ministry of Transport and Communications.
OBC does not control internet fees as the company is only mandated with implementing the National Broadband Strategy by providing high speed broadband network for communication
service providers in the Sultanate.
He also said that after the entry of OBC to the market, the home broadband fees started going down and the quality and speed became better.