Satellite Broadband Jumps 148% in Oman's July Telecom Data

Oman's telecom market keeps growing, but the shape of that growth changed sharply in the twelve months to July 2026. The latest official figures from the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI), reported on 8 September 2026, show total mobile subscriptions crossing 8.4 million even as some fixed-line technologies collapse and a small but fast-growing segment, satellite broadband, posts the steepest rise on the board.

📊 Key Takeaways

• Total mobile subscriptions reached 8,435,420 by end-July 2026, up 1% year on year, according to Times of Oman.
• Satellite broadband subscriptions surged 148.1% to 1,871, the fastest-growing connection type in the entire NCSI dataset, though still a tiny slice of the market.
• Fixed 4G subscriptions collapsed 69.1% to just 5,333, and ADSL fell 21.4% to 8,677, as customers migrate to fibre and fixed-wireless alternatives.
• Fibre-to-the-Home/Building (FTTH/B) connections grew 6.4% to 366,686, remaining the backbone of Oman's fixed broadband growth.
• Postpaid mobile subscriptions rose 6.8% to 1,326,014 while prepaid subscriptions fell 2.6% to 5,394,199, a continuing shift toward contract plans.
• International internet bandwidth climbed 31.8% to 5,382,003 Mbps, matching the growth rate recorded a month earlier.

📡 What the numbers show

According to Muscat Daily, the NCSI dataset covers the period ending July 2026 and is compiled from returns submitted by Oman's licensed telecom operators. The headline figure, a 1% rise in total mobile subscriptions to 8,435,420, looks modest on its own. But the detail underneath it tells a more interesting story about how Omani households and businesses are actually connecting to the internet.

Internet of Things and machine-to-machine subscriptions, which cover everything from smart utility meters to fleet-tracking devices, grew 9.3% to 1,715,207, the second-fastest growth rate in the report after satellite. Fixed telephone lines, often assumed to be a dying category, actually edged up 0.5% to 441,306, suggesting demand for landlines has stabilised rather than disappeared entirely.

🛰️ Satellite broadband's under-the-radar surge

The 148.1% jump in satellite subscriptions is the standout figure in this release, even though the absolute numbers remain small at 1,871 connections nationwide. The category has been building since the TRA approved Starlink to offer nationwide broadband in Oman, with the operator authorised to serve remote and geographically challenging areas, including support for oil and gas, mining, tourism and agriculture sites that are expensive to reach with fibre or terrestrial towers. A near-doubling and a half of subscriptions in a single year suggests satellite connectivity is finding real demand outside Oman's urban fibre footprint, even if it remains a rounding error next to the 366,686 FTTH/B connections that still anchor fixed broadband in the Sultanate.

📉 Legacy technologies fade fast

The flip side of fibre's steady climb is the accelerating retreat of older fixed technologies. Fixed 4G connections, typically used as a stopgap broadband option in areas without fibre, dropped 69.1% year on year to just 5,333 subscriptions, while ADSL fell 21.4% to 8,677. Even fixed 5G, which many operators pitched as a faster alternative to fibre in areas awaiting rollout, slipped 3.6% to 209,796 as fibre coverage keeps expanding. Oman Broadband Company, the state-backed fibre network operator, has said it aims to connect one million residential units to fibre within three years, which would explain why customers on interim fixed-wireless technologies are migrating out as permanent fibre lines reach their neighbourhoods.

📈 A steady month-on-month climb

This release builds on the trend AI in Oman covered in last month's NCSI data, which showed total mobile subscriptions at 8,324,406 and international bandwidth growth of 31.8% by the end of June 2026. A month later, total subscriptions have climbed by roughly 111,000 to 8,435,420, while the bandwidth growth rate has held essentially flat, a sign that Oman's capacity additions are keeping pace with demand rather than falling behind it. The monthly cadence of these releases has become more consistent since the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority rolled out Sabr, its intelligent data engine for telecom oversight, which is designed to collect and verify operator data on a more regular basis.

🇴🇲 Why this matters for Oman

These figures are more than a routine statistical update. The shift away from ADSL and fixed 4G confirms that Oman's push toward a fibre-first, 5G-backed broadband market is working as intended, reducing reliance on ageing copper and interim wireless technologies. The rise in postpaid subscriptions and IoT connections points to a maturing market where businesses and households are adopting more data-intensive, higher-value services rather than basic prepaid voice and data plans. And the sharp, if small-scale, growth in satellite broadband shows that Oman's remote wilayats, industrial sites and tourism destinations are finally getting connectivity options that were unavailable just a few years ago. For a country pursuing the digital infrastructure goals set out under Vision 2040, a market where legacy technology fades while fibre, 5G and satellite all expand in parallel is close to the textbook definition of healthy transition.