Core Telecom
The Core Telecom business remains the largest and most established vertical of the Group, delivering mobile, fixed, and broadband connectivity services, including enterprise and wholesale connectivity offerings, across Oman.
As at year end, the segment served approximately 3.6 million subscribers, maintaining a strong market position across its core service lines.
During the year, the business focused on sustaining service reliability and customer experience in a competitive operating environment amid evolving customer usage patterns. Subscriber levels and market positioning across both mobile and fixed broadband services remained broadly stable, supported by customer retention initiatives and targeted enhancements to core offerings.
The Core Telecom vertical continued to provide the scale, nationwide reach, and customer base that underpin the Group’s overall performance. Beyond its direct contribution, the segment plays a strategic enabling role, supporting the expansion of ICT services, emerging technology solutions, and partnership-driven growth across the Group.
Mobile Service
Omantel’s mobile business is the largest contributor within Core Telecom and includes prepaid and postpaid offerings for consumer and business customers. The portfolio encompasses voice, data, messaging, roaming, and value-added services, delivered over nationwide 4G/LTE and 5G networks. In 2025, Omantel maintained a 40.2% mobile market share.
Fixed Service
The fixed segment includes fixed broadband (FBB), fixed voice, and related value-added services for households, enterprises, and government entities. Omantel operates an extensive fixed-line and fibre footprint that provides high-speed broadband and converged services across the country. In 2025, the Company held a 55% fixed-broadband market share, reflecting its strong position in the home and business connectivity market, and its role as the primary fixed infrastructure provider in Oman.
Meanwhile, continued customer migration from copper to fibre in high-population areas and key economic zones remains a strategic priority to support growing data consumption, richer content, and cloud-based services. Enterprise fixed services remained a key income driver, benefiting from fibre-based connectivity, secure networking, and digital transformation initiatives among corporate and government clients.
These investments, while contributing to higher depreciation, are critical to sustaining revenue growth and protecting Omantel’s leadership position in fixed broadband and converged services.
Wholesale Service
The wholesale business encompasses domestic and international carrier services, including capacity, interconnection, IP transit, roaming, and data centre connectivity. Omantel leverages Oman’s strategic geographic location as a regional connectivity hub between Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, supporting its position as a key provider of international wholesale services.
Through Zain Omantel International (ZOI), the Group manages the combined wholesale operations of Omantel and Zain, offering international capacity and managed connectivity solutions to global carriers, OTT players, and hyperscalers. This integrated wholesale platform enhances the utilisation of subsea and terrestrial infrastructure, supports the profitability of the Core Telecom business, and contributes to the resilience of Group cash flows by diversifying revenue streams beyond the domestic retail market.
ICT is a key growth vertical for Omantel
The ICT business represents a key growth vertical for the Group, supporting the digitalisation needs of enterprise and government customers across Oman. The portfolio spans cloud and hosting services, smart solutions, IoT, cybersecurity, system integration, and managed services, enabling Omantel to deliver integrated digital solutions aligned with national digital transformation priorities.
In 2025, the ICT segment continued to demonstrate strong momentum, supported by rising demand for cloud adoption, secure data hosting, and digital solutions across both public and private sector customers. ICT revenues recorded healthy year-on-year growth of 56.7%, reinforcing the segment’s role as an increasingly important contributor to the Group’s overall performance.
Omantel’s ICT proposition is delivered through a unified operating model under Otech, which brings together network capabilities, data centre infrastructure, cloud platforms, cybersecurity, solution delivery, and commercial teams under a single umbrella. This integrated approach differentiates Omantel in a fragmented domestic ICT market, and enables the Group to offer end‑to‑end, sovereign, secure and scalable solutions rather than isolated technology components.
As Oman’s emerging National Digital Champion, Otech unifies Oman Data Park (ODP), Tadoom, and strategic Group partnerships to deliver a comprehensive, best-in-class ICT portfolio aligned with Oman Vision 2040.
OTech emerges as Omantel's unified ICT arm
Cloud and Hosting Services
Cloud and hosting services continue to form the foundational layer of Otech’s digital infrastructure strategy, enabling secure, scalable, and sovereign compute environments for Oman’s public and private sectors. As demand accelerates across AI workloads, digital transformation programmes, and data sovereignty mandates, OTech has strengthened its leadership through a multi‑cloud, multi‑hyperscaler approach that ensures customers can deploy mission‑critical workloads locally while maintaining compliance with national regulations. In 2025, Otech expanded its cloud portfolio across GenAI, sovereign cloud wrappers, AI GPU infrastructure, and digital innovation platforms, powered by partnerships with leading global providers. This ecosystem enables organisations in Oman to adopt next‑generation cloud services, ranging from GPU‑accelerated AI compute to AR/VR/XR digital applications, without leaving the country’s sovereign boundaries.
“Artificial Intelligence is not merely a buzzword. It provides a more efficient way to solve problems... My focus is designing solutions that make AI practical, scalable, and valuable for the organisation.”
Noor Ali Saud Al Shukairi
AI Prompt Engineer
Otech’s cloud and hosting business continues to benefit from strong commercial traction. This performance is driven by rising demand for hybrid cloud services, managed services, cybersecurity-enabled hosting, and industry-specific cloud solutions. Key sectors such as energy, logistics, manufacturing, financial services, and government are accelerating the adoption of sovereign clouds, reinforcing Otech's position as a trusted national platform.
Complementing Omantel’s connectivity leadership, Otech’s expanding redundant data centre footprint, AI‑ready GPU clusters, and managed cloud services architecture strengthen Otech’s ability to deliver end‑to‑end digital solutions at scale. This integrated capability positions Otech as the strategic enabler of Oman Vision 2040, supporting future‑ready infrastructure, innovation, and national digital resilience. To strengthen competitiveness, the Company undertook several initiatives during the year.
1. Capacity Expansion
Expanded data centre capacity by [10 MW / 1,125 racks] to meet rising enterprise and government cloud demand.
Otech is the largest and most prominent Data Centre player and expanding rapidly in Oman and beyond
*This includes planned data centres as well.
2. Portfolio Enhancements
Through Otech, the Group has strengthened its Telco-to-TechCo transformation by consolidating core ICT capabilities, data centres, cloud, cybersecurity, IoT, AI/ML, and system integration under a unified go-to-market model, supported by professional and managed services.
Otech continued to expand its cloud portfolio to support any workload, cloud, and location, combining sovereign hybrid cloud, AI-ready infrastructure, and hyperscaler partnerships to deliver secure, scalable, and future-ready digital solutions.
“A lot of behind the scene work goes into great digital experiences. We analyze systems and user journeys to turn every interaction worthwhile and more seamless.”
Hamed Muhanna Hamed Al Rajhi
System Analyst, Digital Experience
3. Strategic Partnerships
Initiated a collaboration with ZainTech to introduce Cybersecurity Services across the group opcos.
4. Certifications and Compliance
Achieved ISO/Compliance Standard certification, reinforcing trust in sovereign cloud infrastructure.
This illustration depicts Otech’s strong depth of certified expertise, with globally recognised accreditations across data centre operations, cloud, cybersecurity, networking, and project management, reinforcing its ability to design, deliver, and manage complex, mission-critical ICT solutions to international standards.
5. Sector-Specific Wins
- Delivered a National Planning, Evaluation, and Performance Monitoring System for Government Entities for the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers, which is a strategically important national programme. This enabled data-driven planning, transparent performance monitoring, and informed policy decision-making across government entities.
- The Tax Authority e-Invoicing project moved into delivery through an ecosystem model combining global partner capability with local SME contribution.
- The Smart Classrooms programme with the Ministry of Education progressed into digital learning readiness at scale through a structured rollout and delivery model, where we enabled local SME contribution again.
- In emerging domains, space imagery and analytics advanced from a proof-of-concept into awarded delivery, while building a stronger opportunity pipeline and establishing pathways for regional expansion.
- In healthcare, a major network infrastructure upgrade proposal progressed through commercial negotiation, positioning hospital sites for future digital health applications and improved service resilience.
“Automation frees people to focus on what truly matters. We facilitate streamlining repetitive processes, to help the organisation move faster and smarter.”
Tariq Yahya Salim Al-Hajri
Specialist, RPA solutions
Smart Solutions and IoT
Otech plays a central role in delivering national-scale IoT and smart solutions aligned with Oman Vision 2040 and Net Zero 2050. Building on Otech's capabilities in cloud, data centres, and cybersecurity, Tadoom delivers integrated, sector-specific solutions that support the development of smart, sustainable infrastructure across Oman.
Operating as a leading national IoT provider, Otech enables digital transformation through scalable platforms, advanced analytics, and a dedicated connectivity ecosystem. Its solutions are delivered through flexible, as-a-service and ESCO-based models, supporting long-term value creation and recurring revenue streams.
Otech has demonstrated strong growth momentum, achieving a three-year CAGR of 117% as of 2025. Its expanding portfolio and ecosystem reinforce IoT as a strategic pillar within Omantel's ICT offering, contributing to productivity, efficiency, and In-Country Value (ICV) creation across key sectors.
Tadoom Leading Provider of Omani National IoT Projects
Best of Global Ecosystems Creating ICV in Oman
- IoT Platform and Digital Twins
- Smart Building - CaFMand iBMS
- Oman Eye - AI CCTV Platform
- Street Lighting control and ITS CCC
- Utility Platform (Water and Electricity)
- Tadoom X (App and Market Place)
- Tadoom GIS Platform
Platforms in Oman
IoT use cases
IoT devices
IoT devices
model
model
Emerging Tech
The Emerging Technology portfolio focuses on developing digital services that extend beyond core connectivity and ICT offerings. The portfolio spans fintech, digital experiences, customer engagement, and data-enabled platforms, delivered through solutions such as OMPAY, Xhawi, the Customer Experience Platform (CEP), and advertising and marketplace services.
In 2025, these digital services continued to expand in scale and relevance, collectively serving a growing user base and deepening engagement across Omantel’s customer ecosystem. As at year end, the Emerging Technology portfolio reached a combined active user base of over 1.4 million, reflecting increasing adoption of digital lifestyle, payments, and engagement services.
The portfolio is designed to enhance customer interaction, diversify revenue sources, and unlock new digital value pools, while remaining closely integrated with Omantel’s core businesses. Omantel continues to embed digital services within existing customer journeys, aiming to strengthen engagement and extend its role from a connectivity provider to a broader digital services partner.
Fintech and Digital Payments
OMPAY anchors Omantel’s fintech offering, providing digital payment solutions for individuals, merchants, and institutions. The platform supports a range of everyday payment and transfer use cases and plays an increasingly important role in enabling cashless transactions and digital commerce across Oman.
OMPAY is integrated across Omantel’s digital channels, supporting customer adoption and cross-platform usage. Its growing user base and expanding acceptance footprint position fintech as a strategic enabler of Omantel’s wider digital ecosystem, rather than a stand-alone financial services business.
Digital Engagement, Media, and Commerce Platforms
Xhawi, CEP, and Omantel’s digital engagement platforms focus on enhancing customer interaction and monetisation through personalised experiences, targeted communications, and digital content. CEP serves as a central engagement layer, enabling tailored offers and interactions across Omantel’s digital touchpoints.
Advertising and marketplace capabilities further support this ecosystem by enabling responsible, data-driven marketing solutions and digital commerce opportunities for brands, partners, and SMEs. Collectively, these platforms allow Omantel to derive greater value from customer relationships while supporting broader digital economy and SME development initiatives.
Role of Emerging Technology in the Group
Emerging Technology initiatives complement Omantel’s Core Telecom and ICT businesses by deepening customer engagement, enabling new service experiences and supporting revenue diversification. While still evolving, this portfolio plays an important role in positioning the Group for long-term growth in digital services, fintech, and data-enabled platforms, aligned with national digitalisation priorities.
Zain-Partner of Growth
Omantel’s strategic investment in Zain Group continues to serve as an important partner-led growth and diversification lever for the Group, providing exposure to a broader regional footprint across the Middle East and Africa while supporting earnings resilience and long-term value creation.
In 2025, Zain remained a strong contributor to the Group’s overall performance, benefiting from subscriber growth and operational momentum across several of its markets. Omantel continued to benefit from Zain’s scale and regional reach through its share of profits and dividends, reinforcing the role of the investment in diversifying income streams beyond the domestic market.
Beyond financial returns, the partnership with Zain enables Omantel to unlock strategic and operational synergies, extend its international presence, and accelerate the development and scaling of selected services across a wider regional customer base.
Partnership Synergies
The collaboration with Zain is delivering tangible benefits across multiple areas, supporting both cost efficiency and growth opportunities while strengthening Omantel’s regional reach and operational capabilities.
Synergy area | Business impact |
|---|---|
Procurement and scale efficiencies | Cost optimisation through joint sourcing and vendor coordination |
Wholesale and international connectivity | Improved utilisation of international assets and expanded regional reach |
Digital and fintech collaboration | Capability sharing and selective regional scaling of digital services |
Role of the Zain Partnership in the Group
Together, these financial and strategic benefits position the Zain investment as a Partner of Growth, complementing Omantel’s domestic Core Telecom, ICT, and Emerging Technology businesses. The partnership enhances geographic diversification, supports capability transfer, and enables selective regional scaling, reinforcing Omantel’s long-term growth and resilience.
Zain Omantel International (ZOI)
A key enabler that arose from the Zain investment and subsequent strategic partnership is Zain Omantel International (ZOI), which serves as the Group’s international wholesale and digital infrastructure platform. Through ZOI, Omantel and Zain jointly leverage their subsea, terrestrial, cloud, and data centre assets to deliver international connectivity solutions to global carriers, hyperscalers, and enterprises, while optimising capital utilisation and diversifying revenue streams beyond domestic retail markets.
Strategic Highlights of 2025 – ZOI
Enabling ultra-low latency digital infrastructure:
ZOI supported a Guinness World Record-setting remote surgery spanning approximately 12,000 km by delivering a purpose-built, ultra-low latency international route with multiple resilience paths. The initiative demonstrated the capability of advanced digital infrastructure to support mission-critical, real-time applications in healthcare and other high-impact sectors.
Expanding resilient international corridors:
In partnership with Horizon Scope Technologies and Iraq’s ITPC, ZOI established a new terrestrial corridor linking the Middle East to Europe via Iraq, Turkey, and Germany. This route enhances geographic diversity, security, and latency performance, providing an alternative to traditional subsea pathways for hyperscalers and global enterprises.
Strengthening global subsea connectivity:
ZOI collaborated with Sparkle and Telecom Egypt as part of the Asia–Africa–Europe-2 (AAE-2) subsea cable initiative, which will connect major digital hubs in Asia and Europe through high-capacity, secure terrestrial and subsea routes, further reinforcing the region’s role in global data traffic flows.
Advancing cloud and AI-ready connectivity:
ZOI supported ZainTECH and Zain Kuwait to launch Azure ExpressRoute in Kuwait, enabling secure, private, high-performance cloud connectivity for government and enterprise customers. As the international wholesale partner, ZOI provides the underlying hybrid subsea and terrestrial network supporting AI-ready and cloud-native workloads.
Developing next-generation managed infrastructure solutions:
In collaboration with Omantel and Ciena, ZOI supported the launch of the Managed Optical Fibre Network (MOFN) service, positioning Oman as a regional hub for hyperscale, AI, and cloud-driven economies. The solution enables end-to-end design, deployment, and management of dedicated optical networks, with regional reach extended through the Zain partnership.
Industry Positioning and Capability Development:
ZOI strengthened its industry standing during the year, ranking as the #1 Autonomous System Number (ASN) in the Middle East and among the top 100 globally. This level of interconnection enhances routing efficiency, reduces latency, and supports high-performance connectivity for global customers. Moreover, ZOI continued to invest in talent and knowledge leadership through initiatives such as industry masterclasses and internal ambassador programmes, supporting long-term capability development across the Group.
“Strong digital platforms depend on strong connections between systems. My role is ensuring those connections are reliable, secure, and scalable.”
Maryam Mohamed Qader Baksh Al Balushi
Assistant Engineer Integration
Future Synergies and Growth Opportunities
Looking ahead, Omantel expects to realise significant additional value from the Zain partnership by combining ZOI’s international execution platform with the Group’s digital, ICT, and connectivity capabilities. ZOI will continue to support this strategy through the activation of key subsea systems, including Blue-Raman and Africa-1, the expansion of new digital corridors to enhance route diversity and resilience, and the advancement of a regional data centre strategy across the combined Zain and Omantel footprint. In parallel, the scaling of centralised mobility and value-added platforms, such as roaming and IPX/GRX services, together with continued strengthening of governance, risk management, and leadership depth, will provide a robust foundation for sustainable regional growth.
Emerging Technologies and Digital Solutions
The Group intends to scale its digital and ICT solutions into Zain Group markets, leveraging Zain’s geographic footprint and large, diversified customer base. This will enable Omantel to address a broader pool of enterprise and government customers with cloud, cybersecurity, IoT, data centre, and other advanced digital offerings, while supporting shared innovation roadmaps and faster time-to-market for new solutions.
Enterprise Solutions
The combined strength of Omantel’s ICT expertise and Zain’s regional presence creates opportunities to co-develop enterprise solutions, including managed connectivity, data centre, and cloud services, as well as sector-specific digital platforms for key verticals such as government, financial services, oil and gas, and transport. These joint solutions are expected to enhance the value proposition for large regional and multinational customers, strengthen contract win rates, and deepen long-term customer relationships.
Space and Satellite Services
The partnership also provides a platform for collaboration in satellite and space-based connectivity solutions, enhancing coverage, redundancy, and service quality for remote and hard-to-reach locations across the combined footprint. As demand for resilient, mission-critical connectivity increases, both groups are well positioned to explore next-generation satellite and space-enabled services that complement their terrestrial and subsea infrastructure.
Through this multifaceted partnership, Omantel strengthens its regional positioning, diversifies its sources of value creation, and reinforces its transformation into a regional connectivity and technology-led group.
Network and Technology Supporting our Business Performance
Network
Omantel’s position as the country’s leading telecommunications provider is enabled by a modern, end-to-end network footprint that integrates fixed, mobile, and international assets. Sustained investment over time has strengthened capacity, security and service quality, ensuring reliable connectivity for consumers, enterprises, government institutions and wholesale partners. This network foundation continues to support Omantel’s shift from a conventional telecom operator to a digitally driven technology group and reinforces its role in advancing Oman’s digital economy.
Nationwide Integrated Network and Coverage
Omantel operates a nationwide backbone transport network that combines a multi-technology mobile layer with an extensive fixed-line footprint, supported by targeted investments in international submarine cable systems and cable landing stations. Together, these assets create an integrated connectivity architecture that enables Omantel to serve as a central hub for individuals, households, enterprises, and regional carriers.
As of 2025, Omantel’s 4G/LTE and 5G networks covered approximately 98.39% and 93.30% of the population, respectively, while fixed broadband services were accessible to more than 92% of households in Oman. During the year, the Company continued to extend its fibre footprint across high-density communities and key economic zones, strengthening capacity and resilience, and supporting the continued expansion of data usage and digital services.
5G Leadership and Spectrum Optimization
Omantel continues to lead the market in the rollout and commercialization of 5G. The Company marked key national firsts by launching commercial 5G services in late 2019 and subsequently becoming the first to introduce 5G for mobile devices in January 2021. From 2020 to 2025 Omantel has consistently extended its 5G footprint in line with rising customer demand, shifting traffic dynamics and the growing requirements of bandwidth-intensive applications.
Omantel’s 5G Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) offerings deliver ultra-high-speed home broadband, with speeds of up to1 Gbps, supported by a range of lifestyle-based packages designed for everyday home use, gaming, entertainment, and premium connectivity needs.
Meanwhile, the Company’s 3G sunset / legacy network retirement programme reflects a disciplined focus on spectrum efficiency and resource optimisation. Through this refarming of legacy spectrum to 4G and 5G technologies, Omantel has strengthened network performance, improved readiness for future radio access evolution and supported the adoption of Fourth Industrial Revolution use cases, including smart cities, the Internet of Things (IoT) and AI-enabled applications.
Core Network Cloudification and Telco Cloud
In 2025, Omantel made significant progress in its core network cloudification journey, adopting advanced technologies that improve operational efficiency and reduce time-to-market for new services.
Transport Network, Rural Connectivity, and Modernization
Omantel operates a nationwide transport network that underpins residential, enterprise, mobile and wholesale services. Its backbone fibre network, engineered with a highly meshed topology, spans over 11,150 km across Oman, comprising 10,225 km of Omantel-owned fibre and 927 km of the Oman Broadband Company (OBB) network, providing robust connectivity and multiple protection routes linking major population centres, industrial zones, and strategic locations.
To keep pace with rising data consumption and 5G traffic, the Company continued to strengthen mobile backhaul by scaling IP backhaul capacity, extending fibre-based backhaul and, where appropriate, deploying high-capacity microwave links. In rural and hard-to-reach locations, Omantel also leverages fit-for-purpose wireless backhaul solutions, including non-line-of-sight technologies, to maintain reliable service performance.
In 2025, Omantel advanced rural connectivity by upgrading 98 sites previously reliant on microwave and/or VSAT to fiber, improving backhaul capacity, service quality and customer experience. During the year, the Company also progressed its infrastructure modernisation programme across key technology domains to mitigate legacy constraints and risks and to future-proof the network to support continued growth.
Technology
Omantel’s technology strategy increasingly leverages advanced analytics, automation and artificial intelligence to safeguard service continuity, protect customer trust and strengthen enterprise confidence. These technology-driven use cases directly support business performance by enhancing operational resilience, reducing risk and reinforcing Omantel’s reputation as a secure and reliable digital partner.
Customer Cybersecurity Resilience
Cybersecurity remains a critical enabler of Omantel’s service availability, customer confidence and brand integrity. Through a centrally managed Security Operations Centre (SOC) operating on a 24/7 basis, Omantel continuously monitors, detects and responds to cyber threats across its network and digital platforms. AI-driven capabilities are embedded within the SOC to enhance threat hunting, accelerate incident response and improve the accuracy of security decision-making.
The following illustration highlights key outcomes from Omantel’s application of technology and AI to enhance cybersecurity, service resilience and performance integrity.
218 terabytes of malicious traffic blocked despite a 500%+ rise in denial-of-service attacks, maintaining network availability.
107 brand spoofing and digital impersonation incidents addressed, protecting customers from fraud across Omantel’s digital ecosystem.
355+ cybersecurity incidents managed through AI-enabled, 24/7 security operations.
Compliance with International Standards and Best Practices
Omantel continued to align its technology and security operations with internationally recognised standards, reinforcing assurance, governance and enterprise-grade service delivery. During the year in review, the Company successfully maintained key certifications, including ISO 27001 and ISO 27701, as well as PCI standards, across its MPLS, mobile core, fixed-line internet and internet hosting services. These certifications strengthen the protection of customer data and Privacy Information Management Systems (PIMS) across multiple operational domains.
Moreover, in 2025, Omantel further extended its international certification coverage to include all cloud services offered by the Company, including the National Cloud and AWS-based services. This expansion enhances customer confidence in Omantel’s cloud ecosystem, supports regulatory compliance requirements and reinforces Omantel’s position as a trusted provider of secure digital infrastructure in Oman.
“We need to understand how systems work to improve performance. We analyze processes to unlock opportunities and convert operations to be more efficient.”
Badar Khalfan Mohammed Al Mahrouqi
Senior System Analyst
