The board of directors of incumbent telco Oman Telecoms (Omantel) has approved the financial results of the company for the three months ended 31 March 2008, reports the Times of Oman. The multi-service operator achieved a net profit after tax of OMR38.4 million (USD99.9 million) for the quarter, up 59.8% year-on-year. ‘The reason behind the good growth in the company’s net profit lies in the big increase in revenues and fall in operating expenses,’ said chairman Engineer Sultan bin Hamdoun Al Harthi in a statement, adding that total revenues rose by 14.6% year-on-year to reach OMR98.2 million, while operating expenses fell by 2.6% to OMR57.0 million, partly as a result of a reduction in royalty fees.
Al Harthi said that the company’s cellular division, Oman Mobile, saw its subscriber base rise to 1.57 million by 31 March 2008 , and gross revenues from mobile operations increased by 12% annually to stand at OMR65 million in the first three months of 2008. He also indicated that the company has started to implement government recommendations to integrate Omantel and Oman Mobile, but gave no further details.