Thursday 25 / April / 2024
Muscat: Residents of Oman have welcomed Mwasalat’s free Wi-Fi initiative, which commenced on Tuesday.
Omantel has partnered with Mwasalat to provide the service across the transport provider’s entire fleet, and it is a move that residents in the Sultanate say is a step in the right direction.
“Even when I am travelling, I use applications, such as Gmail and WhatsApp very often, and mobile data can be very expensive, so it is a good thing to have Wi-Fi on these buses,” said Vishnu, an Indian expat residing in Oman.
“People don’t use the bus much in Oman, and now that Mwasalat has provided this service, more people will have an incentive to use the bus,” he added.
“This is another very clever method of reducing the traffic on the roads.”
The correlation between increased use of the buses and
free Wi-Fi was an aspect many other residents had touched upon as well
Filipino resident Jair has availed the service to chat with relatives back home via Google Hangouts. “It’s great, because now I can keep in touch with my loved ones even on the move,” he said.
“This is a really nice thing Mwasalat has done and I am sure there will be many others who will feel the same way, because now more people will turn up to use buses.”
“Even in an emergency, we can get in touch with people, because sometimes, certain services may not work, but now we have many methods of contacting them if the need arises,” said Jair’s countrywoman Neda.
“I take many long trips on the bus, and this Wi-Fi will now coming in very handy,” added Aamir, another Indian expat in Oman. “For short distances, it won’t matter that much, but these buses also travel between one city and another and this will really help pass the time.”
“It’ll help take our minds off of the travel time between one city and another,” said fellow Indian resident Manoj. “This is an amazing thing Mwasalat have done, and it’s something everybody will take notice of. Now they might think of using the bus instead of the car.” Although residents are happy with the free service, they have a few concerns about the speed of the Wi-Fi, which has been capped at 512 Kbps.
Times of Oman sought clarification on this matter.
“The reason we’ve capped it at that speed is so that everyone can receive the same speed for Wi-Fi,” explained a spokesperson from Omantel. “If we don’t do that, different phones might receive internet at different speeds, and people will complain, so we thought this would be best for everyone.”
“Whether the bus is full, or has just one person on it, you’re guaranteed the same speed for Wi-Fi so this system is fair to all,” he added.
To access your free Wi-Fi on Mwasalat buses, access the ‘Omantel Wi-Fi’ from your internet selection screen.
Users are then directed to a login page, where they are required to enter their mobile phone numbers to receive an access code via SMS.
Entering that code provides you with free Wi-Fi access, which is automatically disabled after 15 minutes of inactivity.
