Omantel supports rural villages development

Omantel has changed the concept of rural village in the Sultanate's regions and governorates. Despite the fact that residents of these villages need basic development services such as electricity, water, roads and health, communications have become an integral part of the basic elements of village development. They have become of utmost importance to Omani family members in rural villages.

Now, thanks to the advancements and progress in information and communications technology villages now enjoy fixed line service, which offer a range of advantages including calling relatives from home at very competitive rates.

Furthermore, wireless fixed phone service is also available close to the beach in Sharbasat village in the Wilayat of Shalim and Al-Halaniat Islands.

Rural villages to which Omantel introduced the new service, now enjoy a range of related services including internet and fax. These services have changed the concept of the village in the minds of rural residents in about 377 villages. These villages were part of a national project to spread telecommunications services to remote areas in the Sultanate. By so doing, Omantel implements the vision of His Majesty the Sultan that comprehensive development should reach the whole country.

Omantel Head of Marketing and Customer Service Sector Mr. Saleh Bin Abdullah Al-Farsi said: 'There is no doubt that fixed line service now satisfies the needs of a large segment of the Omani population, particularly rural villages. Omantel accords great attention to this segment with the objective being to provide telecommunications services, help them interact with the outside world, and in order not for them to feel isolated from the development process. Omantel saw it as a national duty to connect fixed line service to rural villages as part of a huge project with investments amounting to RO millions. This project aims at spreading this phone service, the Internet and fax to all Omani villages.'

Mr. Al-Farsi added, 'The world has become a small village thanks to telecommunications services. This made us work hard and accelerate our efforts in order to achieve the desired objectives of development plans in the Sultanate.'

Salem Al-Shedi of Shidah village, Wilayat Saham in Al-Batinah region said, 'The introduction of wireless fixed line and Internet service to our village was an important historical day for us, as we lacked this service for long time.'

He added, 'Being a student of Sultan Qaboos University, fixed phone line and internet are necessary for all university students. The internet highly contributes to achieving my vision and scientific objectives. I can now make my contacts through fixed phone in addition to use fax service which made our life easy.'