With the quality of telecom services and their pricing always under the scanner, the Telecom Regulatory Authority (TRA) released some insights into the quality of services offered by various providers in the country.
As per the report, the highest coverage rate for 4G services was in the Wilayat of Muttrah, while the highest download speed for mobile broadband service was recorded in the state of Saham.
During the past year, 11 states were visited, namely Dibba, Saham, Barka, Muttrah, Al Mudhaibi, Jaalan Bani Bu Ali, Bahla, Yanqul, Mahdha, Duqm, and Taqa.
“TRA conducts these surveys using specialized measurement tools and methodologies, with the aim of raising the level of awareness of the beneficiaries and enhancing competition in the sector, where the most important indicators are measured such as the level of coverage, the speed of downloading data, the percentage of successful calls and other indicators.”
In the first six months of 2022, 21% out of 526,531 home fixed broadband subscriptions were via 5G wireless, while 49 percent fixed broadband subscriptions were in the Muscat Governorate.
There has been a constant growth in the number of Fiber to Home subscriptions with more homes and areas coming under coverage.
TRA is working on a report on telecom companies' services by an independent body to achieve transparency, and for companies to look at prices in the Arab region.”
TRA issued 12 regulations in 2022 to raise the quality of telecommunications services in the country.
TRA said that there is a program to close 3G networks so that service providers can use 3G spectrum capacities for new technologies such as 4G and 5G.
It was revealed that nearly 80 percent of buildings will be covered by fixed high-speed broadband, noting that over 600,000 buildings are covered by fiber services in 2022.
Around 51 percent of buildings have been covered by fiber optic services and there are plans to cover 50,000 new buildings in 2023 with optical fiber networks”, he added. TRA has a target to cover 75 percent of the buildings in the country with an optical fiber network by 2025.
According to TRA, the 5G and optic fiber services cover about 94 percent of 880