Fibre Up, Bandwidth Up 32%: Oman's New Telecom Numbers

Oman's telecom sector just got a mid-year check-up, and the numbers tell a story of steady growth with a few surprising twists. According to fresh data from the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI), mobile subscriptions in the Sultanate reached 8,324,406 by the end of June 2026, up 1.3% year-on-year. But the more interesting movement is happening beneath the surface: international internet bandwidth jumped 31.8%, while fixed 4G connections collapsed by 73%.

🔑 Key Takeaways

• Total mobile subscriptions hit 8.32 million by end-June 2026, a 1.3% year-on-year rise, according to NCSI data reported by Oman Observer.
• Fibre-to-the-Home/Building (FTTH/B) subscriptions grew 7.4% to 364,487, continuing Oman's steady shift away from copper and DSL lines.
• International internet bandwidth expanded 31.8% to 5.382 million Mbps, the single biggest percentage jump in the entire dataset.
• Fixed 5G subscriptions actually fell 2.5% to 210,125, and fixed 4G connections plunged 73% to just 5,666, according to Times of Oman's coverage of the same NCSI figures.
• Satellite broadband more than doubled (up 134.3%) to 1,696 subscriptions, still a tiny slice of the market but the fastest-growing segment.
• Postpaid mobile plans grew 6.2% while prepaid fell 2.1%, a sign that more Omani consumers are moving to contract-based, data-heavy plans.

📊 The Headline Numbers: Mobile, Broadband and IoT

The data, compiled by NCSI and first reported on 10 August 2026, gives the clearest snapshot yet of how Omanis are using telecom services in the middle of 2026. Active postpaid mobile subscriptions rose 6.2% to 1,313,837, while prepaid subscriptions slipped 2.1% to 5,305,401, according to Muscat Daily's report on the figures. That shift toward postpaid plans typically points to higher smartphone penetration and greater comfort with data-heavy usage, from streaming to mobile banking.

Machine-to-machine (M2M) and Internet of Things subscriptions kept climbing too, up 9.3% to 1,705,168, according to the same NCSI release. That growth track lines up with the sensors, smart meters and connected devices increasingly deployed across Oman's logistics, utilities and smart-city projects.

Source: NCSI data as reported by Oman Observer, Times of Oman and Muscat Daily.

🌐 The Real Story Is the 31.8% Bandwidth Jump

Buried beneath the subscriber counts is the number that actually matters most for Oman's AI and cloud ambitions: international internet bandwidth grew 31.8% to reach 5.382 million Mbps, the fastest-growing metric in the entire NCSI release. That kind of jump in cross-border capacity does not happen by accident. It reflects continued investment in subsea cable landings, submarine cable capacity upgrades and terrestrial fibre corridors connecting Oman to the wider region.

Oman has spent the past two years positioning itself as a landing hub for exactly this kind of traffic. Omantel has already deployed 800G coherent optical technology to link data centres, submarine cable landing stations and telecom exchanges, among the first such deployments in the MENA region, a move that directly supports the kind of bandwidth growth NCSI is now reporting. Regionally, Ooredoo and Saudi Telecom Company are also building the Saudi Oman Network Infrastructure Corridor (SONIC), a 1,931-kilometre terrestrial fibre route that runs from cable landing stations in Jeddah through data centre clusters in Riyadh and terminates in Muscat, according to Fortune's reporting on the Gulf's data infrastructure race. Projects like this are designed to bypass chokepoints in the Red Sea and the Strait of Hormuz, and Muscat's role as a terminus point matters directly for the bandwidth figures NCSI just published.

This kind of infrastructure build-out is also why Omantel's own financial results have leaned so heavily on technology and data services lately. As covered in our report on Omantel's ICT revenue jumping 63.8% in the first half of 2026, the operator's pivot away from pure voice and SMS services toward data infrastructure, cloud and enterprise ICT is tracking closely with the kind of bandwidth and fibre growth NCSI's numbers now confirm at the national level.

📉 Why Fixed 4G and 5G Are Shrinking

Two numbers stand out for the wrong reasons: fixed 5G subscriptions fell 2.5% to 210,125, and fixed 4G connections cratered 73% to just 5,666. Both of these categories refer to fixed wireless access, home and business internet delivered over cellular networks rather than fibre lines, not mobile 5G/4G service on phones.

The likely explanation sits right next to those numbers in the same dataset: FTTH/B fibre subscriptions grew 7.4% over the same period. As Oman Broadband and telecom operators keep extending fibre coverage into neighbourhoods that previously relied on fixed wireless as a stopgap, households and businesses appear to be migrating from fixed 4G/5G onto fixed fibre lines, which offer more reliable speeds and are increasingly available even in areas that once depended on cellular-based home internet. Oman Broadband's own public messaging during its ongoing Khareef Dhofar 2026 fibre awareness campaign, themed "Experience the Speed... Go Fibre," points in the same direction: the company is actively pushing consumers to switch from other technologies to fibre.

ADSL, the oldest fixed broadband technology still measured in the NCSI data, also declined 20.9% to 8,933 subscriptions, reinforcing the same pattern: Oman's fixed broadband market is consolidating around fibre as the default technology, exactly as Oman Broadband's stated target of connecting one million homes to fibre within three years would predict.

🛰️ Satellite Broadband's Small But Fast-Growing Niche

Satellite broadband subscriptions surged 134.3% to 1,696, by far the highest percentage increase of any category in the NCSI data, even though the absolute number remains small. Since Starlink Muscat received its licence to operate a satellite communication system in Oman under Royal Decree No. 42/2023, satellite internet has offered a way to reach remote areas, mountainous terrain and desert locations where laying fibre or building cellular towers is impractical or costly. The 134% jump suggests demand is picking up in exactly those underserved geographies, even if satellite remains a niche complement to fibre and mobile rather than a mass-market alternative.

🇴🇲 Why This Matters for Oman

These figures are more than a quarterly statistics update, they are a report card on how well Oman's digital infrastructure is keeping pace with Vision 2040's push toward a knowledge-based, technology-driven economy. Rising fibre penetration and a 31.8% jump in international bandwidth capacity mean more headroom for the cloud computing, AI workloads and data centre growth that operators like Omantel and Ooredoo are betting on, and that startups building on telecom infrastructure, like Muscat-based Byanat, which uses AI to help operators plan and optimise their networks, depend on to have room to grow. At the same time, the sharp decline in fixed 4G and ADSL connections is a reminder that Oman's remaining connectivity gaps are narrowing as fibre reaches further into residential neighbourhoods once served only by wireless or copper links. For everyday consumers, businesses and the government agencies rolling out digital services, that translates into faster, more reliable connections and a stronger foundation for the AI-enabled economy Oman is trying to build.