The Sultanate of Oman has seen significant increases in their internet speeds and mobile network performance at the country level since Q1 2019. Its 11 governorates, however, vary greatly when examining different aspects of internet performance. This article will explore Oman’s mobile and fixed broadband speeds for Q1 2019 and Q1 2020 as well as providing details on 4G Availability and 5G deployments.
Oman saw a significant increase in fixed broadband speeds
As of April 2020, the Speedtest Global Index ranks Oman 84th in the world for fixed broadband and 45th for mobile performance. This represents a five-spot improvement in their fixed broadband ranking since March 2020, while their mobile ranking dropped by seven spots.
Data from Speedtest Intelligence® reveals a strong year-over-year increase in performance on fixed broadband when comparing Oman’s internet speeds from Q1 2019 to Q1 2020. The mean download speed on fixed broadband during Q1 2020 was 32.85 Mbps, a 58.9% increase over Q1 2019. The fastest provider on fixed broadband was Awasr, with a mean Speed ScoreTM of 39.96, followed by Ooredoo at 16.43 and Omatel at 14.74.
On mobile, Oman showed an increase of 11.0% in mean download speed from 34.71 Mbps in Q1 2019 to 38.52 Mbps in Q1 2020. The fastest provider in this category was Omantel with a Speed Score of 38.26 on modern chipsets at the country level during Q1 2020. Ooredoo was second at 32.28.
In another recent report analyzing internet performance during the global pandemic, we found that Oman recently experienced a 23.0% increase in mean download speed on fixed broadband when comparing the weeks of June 1, 2020 and March 2, 2020. On mobile, the country showed a 18.0% decrease in mean download speeds during the same period.
Musandam was fastest on fixed broadband in Q1 2020
Looking at the governorate level, we found that internet performance varied widely in Q1 2020 on fixed broadband and only somewhat on mobile. All governorates experienced a significant increase in fixed broadband speeds and a smaller increase in mobile speeds when comparing Q1 2019 to Q1 2020.
The fastest governorate on fixed broadband was Musandam with a mean download speed of 69.53 Mbps during Q1 2020, a 155.1% increase over Q1 2019 and an 111.7% improvement compared to the country’s average during the same period. With the exception of the governorates of Muscat and Al Buraymi, the majority of governorates had slower mean download speeds on fixed broadband than the country’s average of 32.85 Mbps during Q1 2020. The three governorates with the slowest mean download speeds over fixed broadband were Ash Sharqiyah South, Ash Sharqiyah North and Al Batinah North with 10.05 Mbps, 12.19 Mbps and 13.01 Mbps, respectively. Ash Sharqiyah South’s mean download speed on fixed broadband was 85.5% slower than that of Musandam.
Dhofar had fastest speeds on mobile during Q1 2020
Analyzing mean download speeds in Oman’s governorates, we saw a smaller difference in nominal speeds between the fastest and slowest governorates on mobile than we saw on fixed broadband.
Oman’s fastest governorate for mobile download speed in Q1 2020 was Dhofar with a mean of 44.84 Mbps, a 32.7% increase over Q1 2019. Dhofar was also 16.4% faster than Oman’s national average of 38.52 Mbps on mobile and 67.5% faster than last-place Al Wusta Governorate during Q1 2020.
4G Availability varied in each governorate from Q1 2019 to Q1 2020
Unlike fixed broadband and mobile performance, 4G Availability did not uniformly increase in all Omani governorates when comparing Q1 2019 to Q1 2020. Muscat Governorate had the highest 4G Availability with 86.5% of tested locations showing access to 4G during Q1 2020, higher than the country’s average of 81.2%. Al Wusta had the lowest 4G Availability at 67.2% during this period.
Most of the governorates saw a decrease in their 4G Availability between Q1 2019 and Q1 2020. Musandam, Al Buraymi, Ash Sharqiyah North, Ad Dhahirah and Al Wusta were the only governorates that experienced increases in 4G Availability in Q1 2020 when compared to Q1 2019.
5G is concentrated in North Oman
On the Ookla 5G MapTM, we see 5G deployments from both Omantel and Ooredoo concentrated in the north end of the country, close to the Gulf of Oman. We also see multiple deployments in cities like Muscat, Barka and Sohar.
Speedtest® is uniquely able to measure the full throughput of a 5G connection because our test dynamically scales the number of connections between the testing client and server to fully saturate the network connection. During Q1 2020, we saw that the fastest 10% of users experienced speeds up to 765.37 Mbps over 5G in Oman during Q1 2020.
We will continue to follow Oman’s internet speeds, mobile performance and 5G deployments. Ready to explore fixed broadband and mobile network providers’ performance in Oman or any other market? Contact our team to learn more about Speedtest Intelligence.