(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) Omantel has said that the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) has amended the penalty imposed on the service provider for interruption of services last November.
In a disclosure to the Muscat Securities Market (MSM) on Thursday Omantel said it will now pay a penalty of RO1mn in cash instead of the RO5mn first imposed in April this year. The company added that it will build telecom towers at the cost of RO2mn to provide voice and broadband services to rural areas to be determined by TRA and under its supervision.
In a decision earlier this year a fine of RO5mn was slapped on Omantel by TRA as a penalty for what the regulator termed as a 'failure in its duties in relation to a good standard of services to its customers'.
Omantel later made an appeal to TRA saying that the decision was disputed and in accordance with Article (51) Biz (5) of the Telecom Act issued by Royal Decree 30/2002. On November 17 a major part of administrative machinery in the sultanate came to a halt following a collapse in Omantel's mobile and Internet network.
Mobile phones stopped working and Internet network was paralysed creating a sense of panic and frustration among customers. In its investigation TRA pulled up the telecom provider saying 'it failed to rectify the fault following which disruptions continued for nine hours. It also added that Omantel failed to fulfil the requirements of the permits for a telecommunications provider'.
Omantel had earlier this year 'disputed' TRA's decision to impose a penalty of RO5mn for the interruption of service.
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