Page 122 - SAMENA Trends - Jan-Mar 2024

REGULATORY & POLICY UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

enhancement of the fiber-optic network in areas currently lacking supports speeds exceeding 10Gbps, enhancing customer
fiber coverage. This initiative is set to be accomplished within five services, offering job opportunities, providing training for Kuwaitis
years from the date of the public-private partnership agreement, in the ICT sector, and reducing the operational costs of the MoC.
with the ultimate aim of extending coverage to 90% of homes and (January 9, 2024) Arab Times
businesses. Other key goals include ensuring that the network

Oman

The Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Investment Promotion subscriptions, totaling 1.78 million subscriptions. Prepaid mobile
(MoCIIP) signed an agreement to establish, operate and manage phone subscriptions also saw a 1.5 percent increase, reaching
an integrated Cloud Call Centre with the Labbik Telecom Services a total of 5.19 million subscriptions. Among these, 3.93 million
to improve services offered to the Ministry’s customers. The step were from operators, and 1.26 million were resale subscriptions.
will help speed up the process of responding to reports in the This resulted in a 3.5 percent overall rise in the total number of
call center and enhance operational efficiency through the use of mobile phone subscriptions by the end of 2023, reaching a total of
modern technology. The agreement was signed by Dr Saleh Said 6.98 million subscriptions. (February 4, 2024) www.timesofoman.com
Masn, Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and
Investment Promotion for Commerce and Industry, and Khalid The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) has issued a
Saleh al Husaini, founder and CEO of Labbik Telecom Services. The third-class license to Oman Lens Company to establish a ground
agreement constitutes an important step towards modernizing the station connected to a satellite network. Oman Lens will use the
infrastructure of the Ministry’s cloud communication services by first-of-its-kind license to establish a ground station connected
developing the call center that connect the ministry’s directorates to the satellite network, for monitoring, tracking, and controlling
in all governorates in a professional manner with the center hub satellites belonging to the Star. Vision Aerospace Limited
(the Cloud Call Centre). (March 11, 2024) www.omanobserver.om network. The license will contribute to providing imaging services
from space for use in some applications, such as mapping,
Data released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information environmental monitoring, resource management, agriculture,
(NCSI) showed a 9.7 percent growth in postpaid mobile phone and disaster management. (January 22, 2024) www.omanobserver.om

Pakistan

The Federal Minister of Information Technology and million subscribers. Telenor and Zong were the only operators
Telecommunication Shaza Fatima Khawaja and President and to gain customers, 214,857 and 287,312 respectively, while rest
Group CEO of PTCL Hatem Bamatraf discussed the rollout of of the telcos lost a total of 353,374 subscribers. On the mobile
5G technology, right-of-way issues, and the important aspect broadband side, Telenor is the first telco to hit the 3 million 3G
of fiberization within the telecommunications sector. During users mark. Warid has also made significant progress during
the meeting, the Minister emphasized the significant role of the the past month and now boasts 60,923 LTE users. Zong’s LTE
telecommunications sector in the national economy. She said adoption is off to a slow start with 7,621 total users as of February
that efforts are underway to expedite work on matters such as 2015. (March 18, 2024) www.techjuice.pk
5G and other matters related to the telecom sector. The PTCL
President expressed a desire to further strengthen bilateral ties The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has recognized
between Pakistan and the UAE. (March 21, 2024) en.wenews.pk the congestion issues in the existing frequency bands supporting
Wi-Fi, leading to a compromise in the quality of service. In
The adoption of mobile broadband technologies is on the rise response to this challenge, the PTA is contemplating the potential
in the country as PTA reports that around 10.3 million (a total designation of the 6 GHz band for license-exempt use. This move
of 10,342,191) Pakistanis are using next-generation mobile is aimed at supporting advanced Wi-Fi technologies like Wi-Fi
technologies (3G and 4G LTE). The total number of cellular 6E and the upcoming Wi-Fi 7 generations. The 6 GHz band is
subscribers, on the other hand, has reached 136.6 million users considered advantageous for Wi-Fi due to its ample bandwidth
(136,630,891 to be precise). According to the telecom indicators and availability of cleaner channels. By designating this band
made public by PTA, Mobilink is still the largest cellular network for license-exempt use, PTA aims to enhance the wireless
operator in the country with 38.37 million users (losing 5,619 experience, especially for data-intensive applications such as
users in the process), followed by Telenor which enjoys 36.7 streaming and cloud-based services. This step aligns with the

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