Nawras, Oman’s second national telecoms operator, has said that a programme launched earlier this year aimed at ‘turbocharging’ its network is on schedule, with new Huawei radio access technology already installed in every base station from Al Bustan to Darsait. The operator said it has replaced equipment at almost 100 base stations so far, and work is scheduled to reach the Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) area and Qurum within the next week. ‘Turbocharging means a huge increase in coverage and capacity across the network which will give our customers superfast mobile broadband internet at work, at home or on the move,’ commented Nawras CEO Ross Cormack, adding: ‘Our service continues as normal at the same time as hundreds of people are working on a 24-hour basis to deliver this significant network upgrade. We are proud to be bringing the latest technology to the people of Oman as we usher in a new era of communications and raise the bar for customer experience.’
The network upgrade is scheduled to reach beyond Mussanah by the end of 2012 and to cover the entire Nawras footprint by the end of 2014. Upon completion, every base station will have 2G and 3.5G coverage, while many base stations will also be equipped with 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) and WiMAX technology. Furthermore, population coverage of Nawras’ ‘3G+’ network will more than double by the end of the programme and the total number of base stations will have increased by more than 120%. Coverage will be further enhanced with the introduction of a new radio network frequency by the end of March 2013, which will give a major boost to in-building coverage.