Oman Broadband Company (OBC) is aiming to increase the coverage of its fibre-optic network to 130,000 homes and businesses in the capital Muscat by the end of 2016. The Oman Daily Observer cites Business Relationship Manager Hamood al Rashdi as saying that the state-owned company’s infrastructure is currently available to around 60,000 residential and commercial units across the Muscat Governorate. ‘Our target is to cover 80% of Muscat by 2020 and 95% of the Sultanate’s urban area by 2030,’ Al Rashdi added.
TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database notes that state-owned OBC has been licensed by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) to provide the infrastructure in accordance with the plans and objectives of a new National Broadband Strategy (NBS), which was formally approved by the government in September 2013. The fibre-optic infrastructure is being made available to the country’s telecoms operators Omantel, Ooredoo Oman and Awasr, as well as to government-run utilities and third-party service providers.