Saturday, October 20, 2007

Interesting Stuff


Recurring in today's newspapers' front pages, is what appears to be a teaser-like news article titled "Internet In Oman". It definitely is NOT a newspaper headline considering the fact that it only goes on for a single paragraph talking about the benefits of the Internet, and it's growth here in the sultanate. All 'pinned' down by a red pin that says " I heart Internet ".

I've seen it in today's Shabiba, Al-Watan and Oman. Don't know if it's in any of these newspaper's English affliates, but to say the least, this definitely is very very "interesting stuff".

A new provider in the horizon ? .. Thoughts anyone ?

7 comments:

muscati said...

I think it's a teaser ad for Omantel's new ADSL campaign. They've been planning to launch new prices and packages including a speed upgrade to household ADSL subscribers of up to 1mbps. I know that this has been planned a year ago but was on hold for some stupid reason or other. I hope they'll finally launch. Our current speed is way too slow.

TI3GIB said...

Someone told me today that it might be the earliest appearances to a new contender in the telecom scene. An Indian company is willing to establish itself in the communications field in all services (Landline, Mobile, Internet).

But if it turns out to be the new an revision in the current Omantel ADSL offerings then it's going to be worthless without removing the bandwidth limitations (Removing the usage charges and sticking to the monthly rental fees only).

A speed increase to 1MB would be slightly better than the current offering, but without upgrading the infrastructure and expanding the network, any speed upgrades are going to be minimalistic in effect. The poor quality of the cables, and the very large number of dummy firewalls have an extreme effect on the latency of the service and the lag numbers are off the roof.

I guess, time will only tell.

Twister said...

Speed increase...couldnt have come at a better time...

Meticulousness said...

Omantel is currently working on its new infrastructure to launch the E-Government along with the Next Generation Network (NGN). That'll be followed with a speed of 24MBps.

If at any rate a speed increase was to be offered, it'll more likely be 2MBps. Omantel follows such standards that it can't offer 1MB for a single customer. Though, anyone can propose for such a job order yet not anyone is able to afford it meanwhile.

TI3GIB said...

NGN = ADSL2+ ?

I don't understand Omantel's involvement in the 'eGov' project. They're a telecom company and they have little role in facilitating such a service.

Either way, this could also be Nawras' early teaser's to the 3G network that's supposedly going to launch in the next week or two. The details about which type of 3G it's going to be are a little vague at the moment but it's most likely that it's going to be UMTS instead of HSDPA.

Can't wait.

muscati said...

Suckas!

Turns out to be nothing more than a teaser for Omantel's announcement that they finally have additional ADSL lines to offer.

See the current issue of The Week for the ad.

Meticulousness said...

Yes, NGN is an introduction to ADSL2+. However, those new services are not restricted to internet only but VoIP, Pay-Per-View, Online Gaming and maybe Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) along with many other services that are to be introduced soon after.

Though, the Sultanate has already signed a contract to launch DVB-T yet nothing happened. I was informed that the project turned into a failure and got canceled.

The involvement of Omantel in the E-Government is due to the growth that has been accompanied by qualitative and quantitative developments in terms of the establishments of the company. By the way, the E-Government is actually a part of Digital Oman strategy planned by the government itself. Note that this strategy includes implementation of an e-payment infrastructure, recognition of digital signatures and the provision of PCs to all schools whether private or public.

Going back to your main question, Omantel has the essential infrastructure to meet the governments’ vision and what better choice could the government have other than the company that feasts on their 70 per cent of controlling stake. Keep in mind that Omantel is present for security issues; blurring walls between citizens and the government.