Telecom services by Omantel are gradually being restored through the Company’s network, the Omani Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) announced in a statement published on its official website.

Earlier on Monday, the TRA revealed that it received a notification from Oman Telecommunications Company (Omantel) informing it of a critical outage in the Company’s telecommunication network, which led to interruption of both mobile and landline services across the Sultanate.

In an attempt to offer a temporary solution, TRA announced that it was “facilitating Omani Qatari Telecommunication Company “Ooredoo” the activation of national roaming with Omantel. This agreement is expected to remain in force till the resolution of Omantel’s network outage.”

The outage had hit the Internet, mobile and landline networks, affecting regular day to day operations and hurting businesses, Muscat Daily reported, adding that FRiENDi and Renna mobile services, both of which use the Omantel network were also affected.

“There has been a partial outage on mobile and fixed networks. Omantel is working hard to restore the services as soon as possible,” Mohammed Yahya Rashid al Salmi, senior manager, corporate communications at Omantel said, adding that the Company “regrets any inconvenience this may have caused to our valued customers.”

It is worth noting that Bank Muscat had issued a statement Monday evening, saying that while its POS were available for purchases, however, services at some of its ATMs and CDMs were not available owing to telecom lines being down. The Bank apologised for any inconvenience caused by ‘this external factor which is beyond our control’, it said in a statement.