Omantel organizes regional workshop on MPLS technology and applications

The workshop, organized by Oman Telecommunications Company (Omantel) in cooperation with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and the Arab Center of Excellence (CoE) will continue up to 23rd of August.

Support for digital culture

Omantel's Chief Executive Officer Dr. Mohammed Bin Ali Al-Wohaibi said, 'Oman Telecommunications Company continues to exert strenuous efforts in order to establish the concept of digital culture within which the concerned authorities work. The objective is to speed up the clearance of transactions and make work environment compatible with the recent world developments in the implementation of electronic transactions.' He pointed out that this will play an important role in saving time and money and provide economic activities with technologies that would facilitate more progress and advancement.

Omantel CEO Dr. Al-Wohaibi added, 'Our efforts at Omantel aim at developing data and information transfer systems including MPLS technology which we accord special attention, especially as part of our great responsibility of achieving qualitative expansion in the use of such technologies. It is because we are aware of the importance of this technology in building and operating the unified government network which links all government sites all over the Sultanate. It will help effect the transfer of data through a secure and resilient network.'

Dr. Al-Wohaibi said that this technology is currently being used by the business sector in the Sultanate of Oman. He added that the banking sector started using this technology through BankNet service, pointing out that all banks in the Sultanate are linked with the Central Bank in a secure network to exchange highly secret information. Several banks hastened to use this network such as Bank Muscat, the National Bank of Oman. He added that negotiations are under way with other banks in this respect.

Successive developments

On his part, the Director of the Arab Center of Excellence, Engineer Gholam Al-Bulushi said, 'In light of the recent fast and successive developments in telecommunications and information technology, and in view of the tough competition on providing telecom services, this workshop aims at highlighting the important elements of MPLS technology, its applications, the special services it will provide as well as other technical characteristics of related parties including organizers, operators and users as well.

He added that the main objectives of the workshop are to provide an insight on MPLS technology and highlight its technical, operational and economic aspects. Interventions will focus on the main elements of MPLS besides other issues regarding operation, specifications and benefits as well as the use of private networks with the applications of the system and its future potentials.

Radical change

Mr. Al-Bulushi stressed the fact that information and telecommunications technology can improve education, health, management and trade. It is now introducing a radical change in economic and social relations and interactions. It provides people in both the public and private sector with the tools that help establish more productive societies and economies and more oriented towards development. He also added, 'We still face a painful fact that those who should benefit from the advancements of the information and telecommunications revolution are the same who have the least chances to reach the technologies behind this revolution.'

He further said that the main motives behind holding this workshop are the radical changes that are currently taking place in the information and telecommunications technology at all regulatory, technical and services levels as well as the ever growing role of the Internet in all walks of life, electronic services in its broad sense and the resulting plans, strategies, legislations that should be effected by governments, administrations, regulatory and legislative authorities.

Practical activities

The Director of the Arab Center of Excellence added that International telecommunications Union (ITU) is strongly committed to play an effective role in enhancing the capacities of member states to benefit from the full potential of information and telecommunications technology. He pointed out that the ITU is working closely with administrations and partners to help them apply information and telecommunications technologies in education, health and other fields. It exerts every effort to boost the potential of member states to develop their networks through offering direct assistances and solutions or through raising awareness and building qualified human resources in telecommunications based on MPLS technology.

Mr. Al-Bulushi pointed out that the importance of the workshop lies in the fact that it will highlight the technology and applications that are based on MPLS Protocol. He said that the workshop will explain how to use MPLS system in support of virtual network and that practical activity shall cover more than 50% of workshop time. Interactive training will be conducted through direct connection with the International Telecommunications Institute in Canada.

He added that the main objective of the establishment of the Arab Centre of Excellence Project is to provide sustainable and long lasting capacity building solutions for decision-makers and executive staff and operators in the telecommunications and information technology sector in the Arab region.

The establishment of the Arab Center of Excellence project came at the request of Arab countries and in conformity with the ITU initiative to establish centers of excellence in several world regions. The Arab Center of Excellence is part of ITU initiative and is based in the Sultanate of Oman.

Diverse programmes

The Arab Center of Excellence has highly and effectively contributed to building human capacities in the Arab region through conducting a range of training programmes in telecommunications and information technology. It has, until date, held 46 training courses attended by more than 2900 participants from all Arab countries.

Meanwhile, First Director of the Department for Networks Development at Omantel, Mr. Samir Bin Hamad Al-Siyabi presented an inclusive explanation of MPLS technology and applications. He spoke of the importance of this technology in the work environment especially the private sector institutions including banks in view of the fact that this technology is unique among other similar techniques in terms of the fast and high quality transfer of data. MPLS technology is currently in operation in the banking sector in the Sultanate through the BankNet service, which is also provided by Omantel. This technology requires the installation of special customer premises equipment (CPE) in both the central point and offices of banks. Omantel has recently signed agreements with some leading banks in the Sultanate to help them apply these services and technology in their systems.

Strong participation

The workshop, which is attended by large number of participants from the Sultanate and other Arab countries, aims at highlighting the main aspects of MPLS system and its importance, the services provided by the system and the technical characteristics of the concerned parties including organizers, operators and consumers.

The workshop, which will feature a presentation by Mr. Mido Shamas from the International Telecommunications Institute of Canada, shall cover the operational and technical elements of the system and provide a deep insight on MPLS technology. It targets executive directors and operators from all departments and agencies of the telecommunications regulatory authorities, service operators and providers, system engineers, network planners, Internet experts, trainers and other technical operators as well as future experts.

Technical features

The Multi Protocol Labeling Switching (MPLS) technology has appeared for the first time six years ago, when several companies decided to apply it over the Internet after conducting extensive research. Oman Telecommunications Company is currently applying this technology in the services it provides to institutions and companies.