This paper analyzes the impact of telecommunications reform policy on sectoral performance in the Sultanate of Oman using a dataset of basic indicators from different sources. The reform policies understudy include establishment of regulator authority, restructuring and privatization of the state-owned incumbent (Omantel) and opening up the mobile sector for competition. A country-level comparative analysis as well as regional comparisons with peer countries of MENA and GCC is used. A country-level analysis shows that restructuring and partial privatization policies did not bear significant improvement. That is, market segments remained low-penetrated for fixed and internet with even fixed services experiencing shrink in subscriber base. On the contrary, after competition was introduced in the mobile sector, myriad benefits have been quick in materializing. In addition, the foreign operator recorded higher growth rate than partially- privatized domestic operator implying that the firm failed to exploit the scale advantage it accumulated during the monopoly stage such as sales, distribution and marketing channels. With regard to peer-regional comparison with GCC countries, it reveals that telecommunication sectors in Oman appeared to be underperforming with an exception of mobile sector which showed rapid growth.
