Oman Telecommunications Company (Omantel), the Sultanate’s incumbent telecoms operator, has announced its financial results for twelve months to end-December 2014, reporting revenue of OMR481.2 million (USD1.25 billion), an increase of 4.0% from OMR462.9 million the previous year. The firm said that growth was mainly driven by domestic retail revenues, which grew 4.3% to OMR392.6 million in 2014, spurred by fixed and mobile broadband, as well as corporate data services. However, revenue from national and international calls and SMS continued to decline amid increasing usage of over-the-top (OTT) services, and turnover from Pakistani subsidiary Worldcall (WTL) slumped by 26.2% year-on-year. Omantel said that operating expenses for the period grew by 2.8% year-on-year to OMR350.8 million, while net profit rose 2.6% from OMR119.3 million in 2013 to OMR122.4 million twelve months later, representing the firm’s highest net profit in the last five years.
Total subscribers (including WTL) reached 4.296 million at the end of December 2014, an increase of 6.8% from 4.022 million a year earlier; Omantel’s domestic subscriber base increased 7.9% year-on-year to 3.341 million (excluding mobile resellers). ‘Omantel recorded a positive growth across all business lines and was able to close the year with a 4% growth in revenues and 2.6% increase in net profit,’ commented CEO Talal Said Al Mamari, adding: ‘We are pleased with the overall performance in Year 2014 and in particular the growth of fixed broadband services, which is the highest recorded to date. This has been achieved despite unfavourable market conditions and increased competition from OTT players.’