TRA approves FTTH pilot project

Oman’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) has approved a pilot project to connect households in Ma’bailah North and Ma’bailah South to a fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network, Times of Oman reports. The aim of the nine-month project is to test the technical feasibility of the fibre-optic infrastructure where the government has already allocated a budget for building a FTTH network as part of Muscat Wastewater Project implemented by Haya Water Company. The project will be rolled out by fixed line incumbent Omantel and second national operator Nawras, which will select users in a maximum of 400 buildings in the two regions. The selected users will be supplied with free high speed internet over the FTTH network during the trial period to test the service and ensure its stability. TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database states that Omantel has already deployed FTTH infrastructure in partnership with Chinese vendor Huawei. The operator’s fibre network was launched in March 2010 in newly developed residential areas of Muscat, providing broadband internet at download speeds of up to 80Mbps and also supporting services such as triple-play, video on demand (VoD) and high definition (HD) television.