Saturday 16 / November / 2024
Muscat: The results of a study comparing the prices of retail telecom services with the GCC and Arab countries for the year 2021 revealed that the Sultanate of Oman ranked first in the Arab world in the cheapest retail prices for fixed telecommunication services for the year 2021.
Oman recorded a significant decrease in the prices of mobile telecom services packages compared to previous years, and the continued decline in the prices of mobile data packages “5-50 GB”, while it increased the monthly average of data usage volume per beneficiary is 17%.
Oman ranked first in the Gulf as the cheapest price in mobile telecom services for individuals, in voice baskets with data of “5, 10 and 20” GB, which represent more than 80% of the total subscriptions, while the Sultanate of Oman came from the countries The most expensive in the Gulf in terms of high data usage packages, in the “20 and 50” GB data packages, which represent less than 20% of the total subscriptions.
Oman ranked first in the Arab world in the cheapest retail prices for fixed telecommunications services for the year 2021 for individuals with fixed telecom services packages for a package of 1000 megabits / second, while it ranked seventh in the Arab world and second in the Gulf for a package of 100 megabits / second, and ranked 14th in the Arab world and third in the Gulf for a package 0.25 Mbps, and tenth place for the 10 and 25 Mbps packages.
In retail prices for fixed telecom services for the year 2021 for enterprises, the Sultanate of Oman came the cheapest in the Gulf for the packages of 100 and 0.25 Mbps, and ranked fifth for the 10 and 25 Mbps packages, while it came in the eighth and eleventh place in the Arab world for the 100 Mbps packages. second and 0.25 Mbps, respectively, and ranked sixth for the 10 Mbps package, and ninth for the 25 Mbps package.
The results of the study showed that fixed broadband services witnessed a decrease in the prices of high-speed Internet packages "100 and 1000" Mbps during the year 2021, which contributed to an increase in the average monthly data usage volume by 20%, and subscriptions to high-speed packages and their market shares increased during the year 2021.
The study recommended that to ensure an increase in revenues in the telecommunications sector and usage in light of low prices, companies should raise the quality of communication services to enable higher usage, and enable subscribers to move from third generation technologies and internet services via copper cables to high-speed broadband services, and expand the deployment of infrastructure networks for technologies which supports high speeds such as fiber optics and the fifth generation, and also recommended that companies invest in employing applications of the fourth industrial revolution and services of emerging technologies, and innovation in providing communication services in a way that leads to stimulating the increase in subscriptions.
To ensure an increase in government revenues from the sector with lower prices, the study recommended the issuance of a law regulating communications and information technology in order to enable attracting global investments and regional centers in data and applications of the fourth industrial revolution, and aligning urban planning and population strategy to meet the requirements of the sector in increasing investment in the deployment of communication networks. Promoting the digital industry within the digital economy initiatives, such as the digital transformation of government services, the manufacture of digital content, and the increase in the number of service platforms. It also recommended stimulating tourism, which leads to attracting more tourists from outside the Sultanate of Oman.
The study was prepared by a specialized international house of expertise, and under the supervision of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, Kingdom of Bahrain, on behalf of the Arab Network for Regulatory Authorities for Communications and Information Technology.
