Minister discusses challenges facing Oman's telecom sector

Muscat: Quality of service, increasing the geographic coverage and the challenges facing the telecom sector were discussed by the Dr. Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Futaisi, Minister of Transport and Communications yesterday night.
Al Futaisi discussed with the CEO of Telecom Regulatory Authority, CEO of Oman Telecommunications Company (Omantel) and CEO of Omani / Qatari Telecommunications Company (Ooredoo) the development of the communications sector, as well as the quality of the services rendered to meet the needs of individual and institutional beneficiaries.
The challenges include the mountainous topography of the Sultanate which increases the cost of communication networks.
They affirmed the importance of continuing the efforts to increase the geographic coverage and reach to remote areas.
The meeting also touched on the key areas for improvement for the companies and the need to do more efforts to develop the service and follow up the tariffs of the services and plans.
The Minister of Transport and Communications urged all parties to follow up satisfaction of beneficiaries and get their feedback to explore possible means for improvement and development and to come out with solutions and services that meet the needs of customers.
He also urged them to interact with beneficiaries at the different media means to raise public awareness of the constant developments of the sector, as well as the different technologies that affect benefiting from the services and consequently the tariffs for such services.
The participants at the meeting agreed to issue a joint detailed release that reflect the key developments of the sector, as well as the challenges facing it.