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Omantel

Founded in 1996, Oman Telecommunications Company (Omantel) is the largest of its kind in Oman. In 2020, the company had over three million mobile and fixed subscribers in the country. Omantel is also the largest shareholder in Zain, a Kuwaiti-headquartered telecommunications operator providing services across the Middle East.

Summary

Omantel trails behind other companies in its contribution to digital inclusion. The company’s poor performance on the benchmark is largely due to a lack of evidence of its initiatives in many areas covered by the benchmark. In the area of innovation, the company supports university research and start-ups. Further, the company supports access to digital technologies for children, and has programmes for enhancing digital inclusivity for people with disabilities. However, no evidence of notable activities by the company was found in the area of use. Omantel publishes an annual report but there is limited coverage in the report on its activities related to digital inclusion. The company can consider publishing a standalone environmental, social and governance (ESG) report aligned with international reporting standards, and enhancing disclosure on its digital inclusion activities.

Ranking position: #128/150
Total score: 13.0/100

Measurement area	Score (0-2)	Rank (0-150)
Access	#1 0.3 /2	#108
Skills	#1 0.3 /2	#77
Use	#1 0.1 /2	#131
Innovation	#1 0.5 /2	#108

Access: Omantel contributes to improving access to digital technologies for vulnerable users by providing discounts for users with disabilities.
Skills: Through its Hour of Code initiative, the company partners with an Omani education organisation to support computer science training for children. The company also teaches elderly users basic digital skills. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Omantel supported online learning by providing the public with free access to educational websites and donating laptops so teachers could teach remotely.
Use: No evidence was found of the company’s leading practices in this area.
Innovation: Omantel collaborates with universities in Oman on research into 5G and internet of things (IoT) applications. The company supports the tech innovation ecosystem in Oman by offering mentoring and training to start-ups.

Access: Omantel can more clearly demonstrate how it supports digital opportunities for women and girls and how it makes digital products accessible for people with disabilities. It should also disclose how the economic value it generates is distributed among its stakeholders.
Skills: Omantel has an opportunity to broaden its support for digital skills development, especially intermediate and technical digital skills among vulnerable and underrepresented groups. The company should consider carrying out a third-party assessment looking at the impact of its existing programmes on advancing digital skills. It can also report on its financial and in-kind contribution to these programmes.
Use: Little evidence was found on Omantel’s activities to make digital technologies safe and secure. The company can more clearly demonstrate how it assigns senior-level oversight of and accountability for cybersecurity and how it monitors, remedies and reports on security incidents. Additionally, it should make a high-level commitment to child online protection and support initiatives that address the issue.
Innovation: Little evidence was found in relation to Omantel’s support for open, inclusive and ethical innovation. The company has an opportunity to report on initiatives in this area. Further, it can enhance transparency by reporting the number of its women employees engaged in technical roles, and how it considers ethics and human rights in its research and development (R&D) activities.

Respect human rights: No policies or commitments by the company relating to respect for human rights were found in the public domain.
Provide and promote decent work: Omantel monitors the health and safety performance of its contractors. However, no policies or commitments by the company relating to providing and promoting decent work were found in the public domain. In relation to workforce diversity, the company provides a breakdown of employees in different employee categories by gender. However, it does not disclose information against any other indicators of diversity.
Act ethically: No policies or commitments by the company relating to key ethical business topics, such as tax, bribery and corruption, and lobbying and political engagement, were found in the public domain.
Core social indicator scores: The below datasheet disaggregates scores within the three core social measurement areas and by specific indicators.
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More about the company

Headquarters: Muscat, Oman
Locations: Download overview
Ownership structure: 51% owned by the government of Oman, 59% publicly listed
Fiscal year: Ends 31 December
Group revenue: US$1,386 million (FY2020)
Group employees: 2,450 (FY2020)
Website: https://www.omantel.om

This company is part of the SDG2000, the 2.000 most influential companies

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Omantel

Leading practices

Access

Skills

Use

Innovation

Risks and opportunities

Access

Skills

Use

Innovation

Core social indicators

Respect human rights

Provide and promote decent work

Act ethically

Core social indicator scores

More about the company

This company is part of the SDG2000, the 2.000 most influential companies