Oman Telecommunications Company (Omantel), the Sultanate’s incumbent telecoms operator, has announced its preliminary financial results for the twelve months ended 31 December 2012, reporting a 4.1% increase in net profit to OMR116.2 million (USD300.9 million) from OMR111.6 million in 2011. Despite a decline in revenue from international calls and SMS, revenue for the year totalled OMR458.9 million, up 1.4% compared to OMR452.6 million twelve months earlier, with growth driven by wireless arm Omantel Mobile, which achieved its highest retail revenue of OMR70.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2012. Total Omantel subscribers (including Pakistani subsidiary Worldcall Telecommunications) reached 3.831 million at the end of December 2012, an increase of 8.5% year-on-year, with Omantel Mobile customers totaling 2.553 million. Including resellers, mobile subscribers increased by 8.5% to 3.06 million at the end of 2012. Fixed broadband and mobile broadband customers meanwhile grew by 59.5% and 36% during 2012, while revenue also increased 69% and 26% respectively.
‘We are delighted with the results the company achieved during 2012 that have seen our subscriber base growing despite the increased domestic competition as well as competition from over the top players and challenging conditions in the domestic market,’ commented Omantel CEO, Dr. Amer Awadh Al Rawas, adding: ‘During the year, we have successfully launched the first 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) network and rolled out a major 3.5G network development program following the allocation of the required spectrums by TRA. These major investments along with the dedicated efforts and contribution of all our stakeholders have enabled us to increase our domestic mobile customer-base by 12.1% year-on-year. Despite the major investments we have made during 2012 to enhance our customers’ experience, we were able to control our expenses and closed the year with a slight increase in the expenses by 1.3%, thanks to the operational efficiency initiatives launched by different units of Omantel.’