Oman’s second national telecoms operator, Nawras, is set to launch its portfolio of fixed line services for residential customers on 20 July 2010. The company will provide fixed voice and broadband services via WiMAX with initial coverage of 54% of the country’s households and plans to increase this to 80% in 2011. Plug & play package ‘Nawras Home Broadband & Voice’ allows customers to set up internet access at download speeds of up to 1Mbps within minutes; post-paid packages start from OMR15 (USD38.8) per month and include a data allowance of 6GB and a free telephone connection with no additional line charges. From OMR5 per week, pre-paid customers can enjoy 2GB of data, or can opt for a monthly plan at the same prices and benefits as the post-paid option. The company is also set to introduce a number of ‘Nawras Voice’ packages, such as NawrasTalk, which offers bundled minutes to any other Nawras fixed or mobile customer. Meanwhile, ‘My Favourite Countries’ reduces rates for international calls by an additional 10% to two selected countries. The company’s fixed telephone connection is provided free with every broadband internet connection. The optional voice-over-internet protocol (VoIP) service, claimed to be the first of its kind in the Sultanate, provides discounts to six selected destinations: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and the Philippines.
According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, Nawras is owned by Qatar Telecom (Qtel, 55%), Denmark’s TDC (15%) and several Omani investors (30%). The company received its licence to provide fixed, data and international telecoms services by Royal Decree 34/2009 in June 2009 and launched fixed services for business users in May 2010.