Nawras signs US$50 million Network Extension Agreement with Ericsson

Nawras, the Sultanate’s customer-friendly communications provider, held a signing ceremony under the patronage of chief guest H.E. Maqbool Ali Sultan, Minister of Commerce and Industry, awarding Ericsson the contract for a US$50 million network rollout. During the exciting well-attended event held at the Grand Hyatt on Tuesday evening and hosted by Nawras Chairman H.E. Sh Saif Hashil Al-Maskery, Nawras Chief Executive Officer Mr. Ross Cormack, and Ericsson’s General Manager – Oman, Mr. Peter Andersson, signed the contract for the construction of the Nawras network extension to be carried out over the next three years. This contract meets the Nawras license commitments for phases three, four and five and will enable Nawras to continue the rollout of its state-of-the-art network from a coverage of around 85% to over 96% of the population. This agreement covers radio and core network as well as site acquisition, planning and civil works.

Nawras CEO, Ross Cormack, said, “From the beginning, Nawras promised customers easy-to-use services based on the latest technology, delivered with great value in a customer-friendly manner. Customer numbers have exceeded our original expectations for this stage of the company’s growth, and we are delighted that more than 500,000 customers have already joined the ‘fastest growing family in Oman’. This extension of our own network will give us the means to deliver our high standard of pleasingly different service in a greater geographical area and to a greater number of customers, than ever before. This coming year will be our third year of expansion since launch and with this new contract we will cover over 96% of the population with our own network. Nawras has helped enormously to drive market penetration from just 35% penetration when we launched to around 66% today, and as the Nawras family continues to grow, we will be more than ready to meet the increase in demand and deliver all the latest services using our world-class network to even more of the people of Oman. Nawras currently has over 30% market share and offers the widest coverage in Oman thanks to National Roaming which reaches 95% of population coverage today - at Nawras prices!”

Peter Rubeck, Nawras Chief Technical Officer, explained the way this new development will positively impact the Nawras customer experience when he said, “This contract was subject to an international tender process with all the major suppliers participating. Nawras chose Ericsson for the company’s ability to continue building on the current top-notch network, employing the latest technology available anywhere in the world, to ensure that Nawras customers will carry on enjoying the most advanced and reliable service. Nawras has made sure it has the very ‘best of the best’ in terms of network technology and expertise to deliver great value and excellent quality to Nawras customers. By building such a high quality network, Nawras is maximising the availability of that service. The network is robust, as demonstrated during the summer when Nawras participated in the Khareef Festival in Salalah and offered a smooth, reliable service despite the extremely high volume of traffic from the hundreds of thousands of visitors thronging to this extremely popular summer destination.”

Andersson said, “We are very pleased that Ericsson has been selected to continue the partnership with Nawras, delivering the extension of the network using sophisticated EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution) technology so that even in mountainside locations, high-speed data access at something like ISDN speeds will be available. Furthermore, using MPLS (Multi protocol label switching) in the rollout, will allow Nawras to speed up the availability of new customer services in the future.”

Industry leader Ericsson benchmarked the Nawras network with 110 Ericsson equipped mobile networks worldwide and the Nawras state-of-the-art network ranked amongst the top 10% in the majority of key performance indicators (KPI’s) measured. Even more impressive, Nawras was placed at number one in three of the KPI’s, including the record for the least number of dropped calls. The network is pushed to capacity levels during holiday periods such as Eid Al Fitr and yet has proved beyond any doubt, that even with extremely high traffic intensity, there is no variance in the high quality network performance experienced by Nawras customers at quieter times.

In Oman, Nawras was the first and is still the only operator to offer EDGE mobile technology, delivering high-speed data to mobile devices three times faster than an ordinary GSM/GPRS network. The wireless Nawras Internet is Oman’s fastest and most affordable mobile Internet connection. Nawras Internet offers two highly-convenient and easy to use products which are bundled with a Nawras Ajel SIM-card. Crucially, there is no waiting period to get connected to the Internet; an instant Nawras Internet connection can be purchased from any Nawras Store. An attractive price plan makes Nawras Internet Oman’s most affordable mobile Internet service with great value-for-money.

Eng. Abdulla Issa Al-Rawahy, Nawras Chief Technical Advisor, highlighted the advantages of the network expansion, saying, “This development of the network will further enhance the mobility aspect of Nawras Internet access, giving greater freedom to customers, enabling them to use the wireless Nawras Internet connection in any location in the Sultanate. The Nawras network has already proved its reliability and with our world-class network services, customers are not tied to their desk or restricted to cafes for internet access.”

Nawras is the only Omani mobile operator to set up and carry out successful Third Generation (3G) testing and has been trialling the technology throughout 2006. Video telephony and ultra high-speed Internet connections are only two of the services being tested. Everyone is welcome to visit one of the Nawras Stores at Al Athaiba, Al Araimi, Nizwa, Salalah or Sohar, where the 3G service is show-cased and available for testing, to gain firsthand experience of the sophisticated communication options which are just around the corner.

This important signing ceremony also highlighted the significant contribution Nawras has made to the Omani economy in many different ways. One example can be seen in the direct employment of nearly 500 employees of whom 80% are Omani. This number is rising as the Nawras family of customers grows and the increase in staff numbers contributes to the Sultanate’s challenge of offering employment to Oman’s young graduates. Indirectly, the knock-on effect of Nawras expanding can be seen in the growth of the extensive distribution network which recently swelled to include all Oman

Post branches and currently stands at over 500 dealers, creating jobs for Premium Dealers and Standard Dealers. Most importantly, many small entrepreneurs are benefiting from selling Nawras recharge cards to customers from more than 12,000 points of sale across the Sultanate. Nawras has committed almost USD400m funds to date.

The many activities carried out by Nawras, indirectly provide economical support for those holding jobs in a diverse range of businesses from advertising and printing to the hospitality industry. In addition, the formation of strategic business partnerships such as the recently signed Nawras-OPAL offer, benefits the local economy by providing cost savings for businesses in the oil industry. Nawras has introduced great value to the market, by giving both consumers and business customers, the lowest national and international prices in the Sultanate.

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