Thursday 09 / January / 2025
Muscat: Oman Telecommunications Company (Omantel), the premier telecom provider in Oman, has been awarded the ‘Quality Choice Prize 2017’ by the European Society for Quality Research (ESQR) for the second year in a row. Omantel received the award at the Society’s recent awards ceremony in Vienna, Austria.
The ESQR’s Quality Choice committee takes a comprehensive look at the initiatives and strategies that business leaders implement in their companies; recognises the efforts of exceptional and talented human resources, and provides motivation for continuous progress.
Omantel secured its position as one of the top companies evaluated by ESQR, for continually pushing the limits of quality through innovation and serving as a great example of business excellence.
“We take great pride in the quality of offerings and services we provide at Omantel. The ESQR recognises good business practices, technological innovation, and quality achievements, and getting this recognition for the second year in a row is testament to our continued commitment to the vision of making Oman a more digitally savvy society,” Talal Al Mamari, CEO of Omantel, said.
“We feel inspired by this win which will drive us to work even harder to achieve excellence and be a key enabler of the digital transformation journey of Oman,” he added.
“We are proud of the quality improvements that took place during the past few years which enabled us at Omantel not only to retain our customers but also to maintain our leadership of the telecom market in the Sultanate and further grow our business. Despite the challenging economic situation in the region and the whole world, we continued our investments to modernize our networks and provide our customers with unmatched experience,” Mohammed Yahya Al Salmi, senior manager corporate affairs at Omantel, said.
“We have invested more than OMR140 million in 2016 alone and more than OMR130 million in the first three quarters of this year. When benchmarked internationally, we have the highest capex to revenue ratio among any other operator in the world. The 4G LTE coverage exceeded 92 per cent of the populated areas, 99 per cent for 3G, 90 per cent for fixed broadband and with combined broadband coverage of more than 92 per cent across the country. The latest OpenSignal report issued last month rated us as the fastest 4G network in the whole Arab region and among the fastest in the world,” he added.
As a result of these investments, network performance improved across the country and the Sultanate emerged as one of the most connected countries in the world, with 13 submarine cables which enabled Omantel to bring the global content of Internet closer to its customers and further to users in the region.
The European Society for Quality Research promotes technological innovations and high quality standards in any type of organisation worldwide, irrespective of its size and geographic location. The ESQR recognises best practices and undertakes quality research, quality assurance and assessment, management consulting, training, and networking events, among other activities.
With an objective to create a regional digital powerhouse benefitting from combined capabilities of both operators, Omantel recently acquired 21.9 per cent of Zain Group. The new alliance will give further impetus to Omantel efforts of becoming a regional leader in the telecom market and grow the group’s businesses regionally and internationally.
Omantel’s network performance has been amongst the best regionally and internationally. The 4G LTE coverage exceeded 92 per cent of the populated areas, 99 per cent for the 3G, 90 per cent for fixed broadband and with combined broadband coverage of more than 92 per cent across the country.
