Oman Telecommunication Company (Omantel) recently signed a five-year renewal agreement with the Information Technology Authority (ITA) to renew the Oman Government Network (OGN) contract, a report said.

The second renewal of the contract was signed by Dr Salim Sultan Al Ruzaiqi, CEO of ITA, and Talal Saeed Al Maamari, CEO of Omantel, reported Oman Observer.

According to the contract, Omantel will provide the government entities with Network links using Multi-protocol Label Switching (MPLS) technology, which has strict Service Level Agreements (SLAs) to ensure the best quality of service, according to the report.

For this contract, the ITA and Omantel added an option to connect using 3G/4G as an alternative option for remote areas.

Dr Al Ruzaiqi said: “We thank the Oman Telecommunication Company (Omantel) for their continuous support to the government projects and initiatives and we are delighted to continue our cooperation with the company in the Oman Government Network (OGN) project which started in 2006 to interconnect all government entities. OGN witnessed great collaboration from the government entities and by end of 2016, 80 government entities were connected with around 1040 government locations. We renewed the contract for other five years with more options and this year we added an option to connect using 3G or 4G for remote areas.”

“The OGN is an important telecommunication infrastructure project that aims to support and link other eGovernment initiatives and ultimately improve public services. In addition to providing a secure network that government entities can rely on,” he added.