Internet in OmanITU-May 2001

. . .....

Saleem Jawad Al-Khaborisaleem@omantel.co.omInternet Business Unit

Oman Telecommunications Company

Internet in Oman

Introduction Oman Internet Overview e-Business status Who is on the net Who is not on the net Support function Final note

OmanTelecommunications

Company(OMANTEL)

Oman in brief

Oman occupies the South-Eastern corner of the Arabian Peninsula. (Third largest country in the Arabian Peninsula)

Population 2,325,000 Omani 1,729,000 Expatriates 596,000

Total land area 309,500 sq. kms. GDP (1999) RO 6,125.2 million Education circa 565856 boys &

girls

aged 6-18 in school Life expectancy 72.8 Birth rate increase 2.5% Tele. Density Fixed 9.57 per 100

GSM 7.29 per 100OmanTelecommunications

Company(OMANTEL)

Employment in Oman

OmanTelecommunications

Company(OMANTEL)

Omantel

His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said has made Telecommunications expansion a priority since 1970.

Oman Telecommunications Company (Omantel) is the sole telecommunications service provider in the Sultanate of Oman.

Omantel’s present network is able to meet telecommunications demands of 80% of the main populated areas and today more tan 98% of the households in the urban areas have telephone service.

Omantel offers GSM, PSTN (all digital exchanges) in addition to other services such as telex, Directory Assistance, marine radio, ship-to-shore, paging, Voicemail, data network and Satellite based services, VSAT services and recently launched pre-paid GSM and Calling card services based on Intelligent Network (IN) platform.

A few months ago, a Geographical Information System (GIS) was commissioned to help manage local telephone network. The system will be used to manage outside/inside plant including coax and fiber cables.

OmanTelecommunications

Company(OMANTEL)

Oman Internet

Launch date January 1997

Initial capacity 48 modem lines w/ 1 Mbps link

Modem lines To date 3600

Total Bandwidth 29 Mbps

Ratio 10 users to 1 modem

Subscription to date 33,280+

Leased line subscribers 52 

Cyber Cafes 40+

Average monthly subscription rate

1500+

OmanTelecommunications

Company(OMANTEL)

Oman Internet

Services

Dial-up Web Hosting Domain Name Registration Log’n Surf (charged to telephone line) Internet Cyber Café Banner Advertisement Free Internet Access from Overseas Email Advertisement Government Package VOIP Mobile Data Service (Internet on GSM)

OmanTelecommunications

Company(OMANTEL)

Cache Flow Cache Engines, Caches web-pages, FTP and soon will cache stream.

6 Cisco Content Switches, it offers Layer 7 switching and protects the network from Denial of Service attacks. 

Netranger Intrusion detection System Monitors the traffic flow, it logs and protects against hack attempts. 

Web servers such as Apache, Netscape Enterprise and Microsoft IIS, based on the type of application customers require such as ASP, PHP, Java Servlet. 

Mail server used is Netscape Messaging Server 4.15.

Oman Internet

OmanTelecommunications

Company(OMANTEL)

Real-Time Internet Billing System

Infranet (Portal Systems, Inc.) Commissioned in December 2000Features: Real-time authentication: check for duplicate log-ins and

passwords to prevent fraud. Real-time authorization:ensures that subscribers have

credit available. Sophisticated rating engine:immediately debits multiple

revenue and non-monetary resources, such as bandwidth and quality service.

Powerful pricing tool: quickly creates and changes prices for products and services without programming

OmanTelecommunications

Company(OMANTEL)

OmanTelecommunications

Company(OMANTEL)

Oman Internet

Firewall

OmanTelecommunications

Company(OMANTEL)

Infrastructure

Internet

CustomerService

NetworkServices

InternetDept.

Billing

&

Operation

Transmission

&

Exchange

Customer

Care

OmanTelecommunications

Company(OMANTEL)

Oman Internet

OmanTelecommunications

Company(OMANTEL)

Omantel’s e-Business readiness!

We are at the final stages of concluding our plans to enter

e-Business arena.

OmanTelecommunications

Company(OMANTEL)

e-business payment network

Confidentiality: Due to the nature of the Internet or any electronic media one is never sure that the sent information will only be viewed by the intended person

Non-Repudiation: A threat that the requestor of a certain transaction will deny issuing the request

Authentication: When doing business on the Internet, the lack of physical contact creates doubts about the identity of the other party

Integrity: Without certain security and precaution measures, one will not know that data has been tampered with.

OmanTelecommunications

Company(OMANTEL)

Internet security issues

OmanTelecommunications

Company(OMANTEL)

Payment Services infrastructure

Credit Card Processing SSL & SET Authorization & Capture (Real time & Batch) Reversal & Credits Split shipments Recurring/Installments Multi-Currency Local bank support/merchant accounts E-checks Direct Debit Electronic bill payment

OmanTelecommunications

Company(OMANTEL)

E-Government Dynamics

Drivers

Businesses need it Citizens want it Improved services Public Image Substantial cost savings

OmanTelecommunications

Company(OMANTEL)

Government to Business services

Utility bill payments License applications Automobile licenses/registration Traffic fines payment Building permit applications Birth/Marriage/Death certificates Municipal services

Internet TariffDial-up

OmanTelecommunications

Company(OMANTEL)

Since 1997 the tariff has been changed 3 times. Internet connection charges in Oman are as follow:

Setup Fee (one time) RO 10.000 Approx. $ 25.00 Fixed Monthly Charge RO 2.000 Approx. $ 5.00 Usage per Hour RO 0.180 Approx. $ 0.45 Connection charge Toll free Log’n Surf (charged to RO 0.025/Minute Approx. $

0.06

dialing telephone number)

1 Omani Rial = 1000 baiza

1 Omani Rial = $ 2.50

Internet leased line tariff

Speed Cost R.O. Eqv. US$

64 450 1,190

128 800 2,080

256 1,500 3,900

512 2,800 7,280

1024 5,200 13,520

2048 9,5000 9,500

Set-up Between 100-200 260 to 320

40% discount available for Health, Education and selective Gov’t organizations.

OmanTelecommunications

Company(OMANTEL)

Internet leased line customersby speed

64 MB48%

128 MB42%

2048 MB4%

512 MB2%

256 MB4%

64MB

128MB

256MB

512MB

2048MB

OmanTelecommunications

Company(OMANTEL)

Oman Internet growth

Subscriber Growth

4345

9697

17118

23871

33280

0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

30000

35000

40000

1997 1998 1999 2000 2001

OmanTelecommunications

Company(OMANTEL)

Gender Count

Female 2666 Male 41938

The above figure includes terminated account.

OmanTelecommunications

Company(OMANTEL)

Government sector Internet accounts

Embassy 100+ Government 300+

 

OmanTelecommunications

Company(OMANTEL)

Institutions

160 Private Institutions (40 supported by the Gov’t) 16 Medical Institutions 970 state schools, additional 226 new schools built in

2000

OmanTelecommunications

Company(OMANTEL)

By profession

Accounting/Finance 540 COM 6599 Computer related (IS, MIS, DP) 108 Computer related (WWW) 90 Consulting 57 Customer service/support 1728

DOC 770 EMP 28354

ENG 394 Education/training 657

OmanTelecommunications

Company(OMANTEL)

By profession

Engineering 780 Executive/senior management 195 General administrative/supervise 267

Government/Military 1611 LAW 2 Manufacturing/production/operation 87

Professional services (medical) 336

Research and development 33 Retired 45 Sales/marketing/advertising 414 Self-employed/owner 327 Student 273 TEC 180 Unemployed/Between Jobs 534 Non-specified 16563

OmanTelecommunications

Company(OMANTEL)

Traffic (Backbone Utilization)

Average

In13%

Out87%

In

Out

OmanTelecommunications

Company(OMANTEL)

Average usage by category (Omantel)

Time duration Number of users

less than 1 Min 55 

Between 1 to 5 Mins. 78

Between 5 to 15 Mins. 160

Between 15 to 30 Mins. 179 

Between 30 Mins. to 2 Hrs 1055 

2+ Hrs 25431

OmanTelecommunications

Company(OMANTEL)

Usage by category

Subscribers

0%

94%

1%

1%

4%

0% <1 Min

1 to 5 Min

5 to 15 Min

15 to 30

30 to 2 Hrs

2+ Hrs

OmanTelecommunications

Company(OMANTEL)

By nationality

Number of subscribers Subscribers from:

1000+ Bangladesh, India, Oman, Egypt, Pakistan, Philippines,

200+ Jordan,Srilanka, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, UAE, UK

25-150 Australia, Bahrain, China, Iceland, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Morocco, Nepal, Netherlands, Somalia, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Tanzania, USA, Yemen

Less than 25 Several countries including, France, Algeria, Ireland, Japan, Kuwait, Kenya, Malaysia, Mali, Libya, and others. Oman

TelecommunicationsCompany

(OMANTEL)

Real-Time Internet Billing System

Portal Systems, Inc. Infranet Commissioned in December 2000 Features: Real-time authentication: enables Omantel to check for duplicate

log-ins and passwords to prevent fraud Real-time authorization: ensures that subscribers have credit

available. Sophisticated rating engine: immediately debits multiple revenue and

non-monetary resources, such as bandwidth and quality of service. Discounting Features: Volume, tiered, promotional and time-of-day

or day-of-week discounts Powerful pricing tool:Quickly creates and changes prices for

products and services without programming.

OmanTelecommunications

Company(OMANTEL)

PC Penetration

Government 20,000 Education 15,000 Business 30,000 Home 20,000

Source: various local suppliers working with International consulting companies

OmanTelecommunications

Company(OMANTEL)

Average daily e-mail activity

POP 69,930 SMTP 22,357 send via Oman Internet Subscribers SMTP 102,791 received to Oman Internet Mail Server

OmanTelecommunications

Company(OMANTEL)

Technical Support

Average daily calls answered between 8.00 a.m.-10.00 p.m.834 Calls missed 62 Average hold time before a representative answers 1Min,18

secs.

Most calls are for: Password issues (forgetting Login, email) 45% Dial-up, email and DNS setup 25% Internet Surfing 10% General inquiry on subscription and Internet 5% Billing inquiry and disconnections 8% Unable to login to Internet 4% Technical enquiry 3%

OmanTelecommunications

Company(OMANTEL)

Internet Demography

OmanTelecommunications

Company(OMANTEL)

14%

5%

8%

5%0%

7%1%

60%

Al Batainah

Al Dharia

Al Dhakhliyah

Al Sharqiyah

Al Wusta

Governorate ofDhofarGovernorate ofMusandamGovernorate ofMuscat

Final Note:Issues, Focus, Challenges and Opportunities

Penetration of School connectivity to Internet is low e-Bus, e-Gov, e-Anything- Policy and Regulation Data Gathering and Accuracy Improved services PC penetration Broadband Bandwidth, bandwidth, bandwidth…never enough!

OmanTelecommunications

Company(OMANTEL)

Contd…Final note

Each computer with an Internet or email connection

supports an average of three users. This puts current

estimates of 114,000 users amongst 2,325,000 people in

the Sultanate of Oman which works out at about one

Internet user for every 20 people, compared to world

average of about one user for every 38 people and in

North America and European average of about one in

every 4 people.

(The UNDP World Development Report).

OmanTelecommunications

Company(OMANTEL)