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Oman Telecommunications
Modern telecommunications facilities were introduced in
1975,
but major investment in such facilities occurred only
after 1982.
In 1989 the sultanate had almost 87,000 telephones, or
about 6.8
telephones per 100 inhabitants, a figure considerably
lower than
for Oman's Persian Gulf neighbors. Service is unevenly
distributed; more than 50 percent of the telephones are in
the
Muscat area. Service is entirely automatic, with
international
direct dial available to all customers.
International telecommunications to Europe, Asia, and
the
Americas go via a satellite ground station, working with
the
International Telecommunications Satellite Corporation's
(Intelsat) Indian Ocean satellite. Calls to other
countries in
the region are routed through a ground station linked to
the Arab
Satellite Communication Organization (Arabsat) satellite.
A third
system of eight ground stations is used for domestic
calls.
In 1992 broadcast facilities were limited. Television
service
was more widespread than radio. There are only two AM
radio
stations, one in Muscat and one in Salalah, and three FM
radio
stations, two in Muscat and the other in Al Khasab in
northernmost Oman. A powerful shortwave station that
broadcasts
in Arabic and English can be received worldwide.
Television
service is available throughout the country; seven large
transmitters are located in major towns, and twenty-five
smaller
relay stations broadcast in rural areas.
The government's priorities in the 1990s are to expand
the
local telephone facilities in existing telephone switching
centers, to provide telephone service to rural communities
without service, and to expand domestic long-distance and
international telephone facilities. The Fourth Five-Year
Development Plan allocated RO93 million (US$242 million)
to
telecommunications projects. Plans of the state-owned
General
Telecommunications Organization include launching public
paging,
data communications, and telephone expansion services.
Data as of January 1993
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