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Omantel Named Among Top Wholesale Operators at the MVNO World Congress 2016

Omantel, the first integrated telecommunication services provider in the Sultanate, has been named among the world’s top wholesale operators at the 2016 Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO) World Congress hosted by Informa Telecoms & Media.

Omantel was highly commended and ranked second in the category of Best Wholesale Operator behind UK provider EE (part of British Telecom Group) at the awards ceremony held in Amsterdam, Holland on the 13th of April 2016. The recognition is the most recent addition to the growing number of awards and accolades received by Omantel within the global telecommunications wholesale arena.

Commenting on the achievement, Eng. Yasser Redha Said Al Lawati, Senior Manager of National Accounts & Interconnection Department of the Wholesale Business Unit at Omantel stated, “We are indeed honored to continue to be globally recognized as one of the top wholesale operators. In addition to being an acknowledgement from the MVNO global community of Omantel’s leading role in this important area of the telecom sector, this is also a recognition of our successful strategy in partnering with our MVNOs and developing this business stream together. Today, the market share of Omantel MVNOs is around 16%, which is the highest MVNO market share outside Europe and among the top 5 worldwide according to recent international reports. This reflects the significance of our MVNO partners in the highly competitive market of Oman. We take this opportunity to thank our MVNO partners who played a major role in achieving this important milestone.” MVNOs are service providers that do not own their own full-fledged telecommunications network and are known as Mobile Resellers in Oman. Instead, they buy services on wholesale basis from Class I operators such as Omantel and packaging the services for retail with their own brand name.

Omantel’s extensive partnerships with MVNOs underscores the Company’s new 3.0 transformation strategy which maintains Omantel’s position as the digital partner of choice for the years ahead. Justyna Topczewska, Senior Conference Researcher at Informa Telecoms & Media added, “I am pleased to see that the MVNOs market in the Middle East is picking up and it is great to see that operators like Omantel are internationally recognized for their effort to help this market to grow. I am very happy to announce that Omantel was selected among the best wholesale operators at our annual event. I believe this is because Omantel is the pioneer in hosting MNOs in the Middle East and has a very interesting success story to share. We look forward to continue to work with Omantel in the upcoming events and present their journey on how Omantel along with its MVNOs made it a huge success and sustainable partnership.”

Omantel is also a founding partner of the International MVNOx Association (iMVNOx) and is working closely with the Association to share experience and develop best business practices and commercial models to enable the MNO and MVNO partnerships to flourish. According to Frankie Spagnolo, the ‎Founder & Director of iMVNOx, “There are global companies and then there are companies who act globally. Omantel continues to grow subscriber acquisition in their national market by combining innovation in wholesale with their ambitious global vision. As thought-leaders in the wholesale sector, Omantel is driving unprecedented support for the virtual ecosystem, pushing the boundaries for other wholesale divisions worldwide by actively studying and refining their best practices for the most profitable wholesale strategy.”

The introduction of MVNOs in Oman has enabled extended reach to every segment in the market, especially those that were previously untapped. Through MVNO partnerships, Omantel has been able to increase its overall network market share to more than 58%, contrary to the global phenomenon of decreasing share of incumbent operators, thanks to the victorious strategy and the win-win situation created for all partnering parties.

In the international wholesale arena, Omantel is considered as one of the most prominent and competitive wholesale telecommunication providers in the Middle East region. In addition, it is one of the leading companies in the field of submarine cable networks complemented by direct terrestrial links, which link Asia, Europe and America passing through Oman to meet the international capacity requirements of customers locally and internationally, thereby sustaining the Company’s leading position among its competitors. Omantel’s wholesale strategy is to be a communication hub in the region and to be the link between the East and West for the region and beyond.