Muscat Municipality (MM) and Oman Telecommunications Company (Omantel) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) under which the latter will provide ICT solutions and services to the former.

The signing of the agreement comes within the framework of Muscat Municipality endeavors to enhance its services and transform Muscat and Sohar into smart cities.

The agreement was signed by Muscat Municipality Chairman His Excellency Eng. Isam bin Saud Al Zadjali and Omantel’s CEO Talal bin Said Al Mamari in the presence of HE Abdulsalam bin Mohammed Al Murshidi Chairman of Omantel Board of Directors and a number of senior officials from both entities. According to the MoU, Omantel will provide a host of ICT solutions and smart city services to municipal work sectors. The agreement also entails providing Blockchain technology and smart cloud call centre services so as to integrate Muscat Municipality Customer Relationship Management (CRM) with call centre and use of Big Data to enhance the rendered services.

Omantel will leverage on its capabilities and expertise in this field along with its strong cooperation and partnerships with local and global partners such as Blockchain Solutions and Services (BSS) to provide smart solutions that will enhance the quality of the services offered by Muscat Municipality.

Commenting on the MoU, Muscat Municipality Chairman HE Eng. Isam bin Saud Al Zadjali said, “Smart cities provide services that help residents make the maximum use and benefit from municipality services. The signing of this MoU with Omantel reflects Muscat Municipality’s commitment to transform Muscat and Sohar into smart cities as well as improve and facilitate the services provided to the public. A team from Muscat Municipality will work closely with Omantel to ensure the best implementation of the project”.

“The MoU covers the deployment of a wide range of innovative solutions that will improve and enhance the quality of Muscat Municipality infrastructure services and ensure sustained saving of time, effort and cost. This would, in return, contribute to enhancing the efficiency of the services provided by Muscat Municipality through various channels as well as creating smart cities solutions to overcome some of the current challenges such as traffic congestion by utilizing breakthrough technologies like Big Data in addition to the introduction of new services that will enrich the experience of the residents and visitors of Muscat and Sohar, ” His Excellency added.

On his part, Omantel Chairman Abdulsalam bin Mohammed Al Murshidi said, “We are delighted to sign this important MoU to provide ICT solutions and smart city services. We are confident that this MoU will bring a quantum leap to the digital services provided by Muscat Municipality and will act as a catalyst for future partnerships and to deploy smart cities solutions in other cities in the Sultanate”.

Expressing his pleasure for the signing of this MoU with Muscat Municipality, Omantel CEO Talal bin Said Al Mamari said, “With the technological advancements and the convergence between IT and telecom services, the world is about to witness a major breakthrough that will affect almost every aspect of our life. We seek at Omantel to deploy these technological advancements and new innovations to enable our partners to develop and deliver high-quality services to their customers”.

Al Mamari indicated that this cooperation lays the groundwork for a new phase of the existing cooperation between both parties as the agreement involves the provision of digital solutions to be used for the first time in the Sultanate. Such solutions are expected to address and overcome a great deal of the current challenges. It is through this cooperation that we will launch the first phase in our journey to the digital transformation of the municipal work sectors spreading across the Sultanate, Al Mamari added.

Dr. Ammar Darwish Al Obaidani, Chief Commercial Officer at Blockchain Solutions and Services Company (BSS) said, “We aim through our cooperation in this MoU with Omantel to contribute to enriching the digital experience in the Sultanate. Blockchain is a key technology of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and is expected to make a revolutionary change to the financial transactions landscape”.

“Our cooperation with Omantel, being the first and pioneering telecom company in the Sultanate, is of utmost importance to us at BSS. Omantel partners from the government and private sector institutions can benefit from the offered smart solutions which ultimately support the Government drive aiming to build a digital society. We are confident that by working together we can maximize our positive impact on the digital experience in the Sultanate.” Dr. Al Obaidaini added.

Investing in the future of the nation, Omantel connects even the most remote communities of the Sultanate to each other and the rest of the world. Omantel is the Sultanate’s first and leading integrated telecommunications services provider, enabling the digital society to flourish, allowing new ways of doing business and delivering a world of information, news and entertainment. Today, Omantel is working to achieve the highest level of customers’ satisfaction as the most reliable and wide national network.