DISQUS

I was involved in the epayment gateway project 7 years ago back when it was BankMuscat/Omantel joint project. The people involved back then knew perfectly well that e-payments will not take off unless debit transactions are allowed. The problem then, I assume ongoing now, is that Visa still hasn't started providing the product in the area yet. If you look at your bank debit card, if it is a Visa Electron, it probably has your account number on it, or a sequence of numbers that looks nothing like a credit card number. It would be easy for Visa or Mastercard to allow the use of the debit cards online and allow a mechanism, even if it involves reissuing the cards with standard payment numbers on them.

From today's Oman Observer:


TRA issues 5 new licences to basic mobile service resellers



MUSCAT — The Telecommunication Regula-tory Authority (TRA) yesterday issued Class II licences to five companies as resellers of basic mobile services in the Sultanate. The licences, granted to Injaz International, Kalam Telecommunications, Majan Telecom, Mazoon Mobile and Arab Link, are for a period of five years, but extendable if the firms concerned comply with their licence obligations. In a statement, the TRA said the licensees can resell basic mobile services after buying airtime from operators at bulk rates in accordance with commercial agreements concluded with the operators. These services can then be rebranded and offered to subscribers at retail rates.



The licencees have the option of programming and issuing their own branded SIM cards or relying on the host operators to provide their programmed SIMs. Additionally, the licencees can independently recharge the products and services distributed by them, or utilise the infrastructure of the host operator. Billing and invoicing may also be independently handled by the licencee or by the host operator in lieu, as the case may be. Mohsin bin Alawi al Hafeedh, TRA Member, said the new Class II licences were expected to boost demand for basic mobile services as the resellers target new subscriber segments through enhanced marketing strategies.



The infrastructure serving basic mobile services is expected to grow as well, he added, while voicing hope that the new licences would help bring down prices and further diversify mobile services offered to subscribers. Under the licence terms, the new firms are obliged to earmark a minimum of 65 per cent of all jobs for Omanis during the first year of operation. They must also set up contact centre to respond to customer queries and complaints, he added.

Oman's TRA has repeatedly said that they have no plans to allow a third mobile operator, but they are willing to allow an unlimited number of MVNOs. In fact Friendi is only the first and there are a total of 5 who have applied for MVNO licenses, all of whom will probably get their licenses.


Once the dust settles, I'll be surprised if more than one of them survives. In the US, Helio is currently in its death throws and in the UK Virgin Mobile eventually merged with NTL. Interestingly, Virgin Mobile failed and shut down in Singapore. The guy who ran it was Ross Cormack, who is currently Nawras' CEO.



By the way, Oman Mobile is planning to have 3G by the end of the year.

The problem with Omantel is that they are obsessed with comparing their prices with competitors in neighboring countries. If you complain to someone in their management he would most likely reply with "we are cheaper than Etisalat". I also blame our government for not having a national policy/strategy on connectivity which forces Omantel to provide affordable broadband to all households.

I don't mind. I'll go if you go, so long of course that it doesn't coincide with any other event which i have to attend for work or ESO.

I couldn't make it because ESO had it's annual generally assembly. I was thinking I'll come next time but I was surprised to look at the schedule now and find out it's in May and it's on Second Life, a topic that doesn't really interest me.

I've seen her in concert twice and I was disappointed both times. I really like her as a singer. She's the best female Arabic singer and she's held on to her success and even built on it. She takes her time releasing albums in order to maintain the quality of her output. Unfortunately, she just doesn't have what it takes to be a great live entertainer.

Now that we have Bordes here in town, let's see how long it takes them to get this book.

I dunno why, but Indian food is the last thing we think of as an option when we want to go out for a meal. I guess it's too close to home cooked meals and a bit too heavy for dinner. I haven't been to Mumtaz Mahal in years. Whenever I get invited to dinner by a customer, it's almost always Mumtaz Mahal. I don't understand why Indians choose Indian food when they go to restaurants. Don't they want to try something different other than what they eat at home? Anyhow, Mumtaz is good, but I dislike the way they serve food. They keep it far from you and the waiters keep coming to you to put some more on your plate. It really bugs me. Why not just put everything in front of me on the table so I can serve myself whenever I want more.


Kay - Woodlands is located in the CBD on the back row close to Bank Dhofar. I havent' been there in at least 7 years, but I do remember the food being the best Indian food I've had in Oman. I think they opened in Sohar this year as well.

They opened a second location earlier this week in the CBD area in Ruwi.


These people must have money to burn the way they keep choosing the worst locations. Restaurants always go bust in the CBD. Even Subway went bust there. CBD is pure shawerma and sandwich area. During the daytime the bank workers only order sandwiches and never go out for meals. And in the night time the area is deserted.

I've never voted for these but I did attend the Award Gala in which they announced the winners last year. Usually the winners are chosen by votes alone. But last year they formed a committee of three who went and ate at the top restaurants in each category and chose the winner. So it wasn't always the restaurant with the most votes that won.

How do their cinnamon rolls compare to Cinnabon?

I passed by Jawharat Al Shatti today and noticed that Santino's s closed for remodeling. They're gonna open later this month with a bigger place and a new name. Santino's no more.

I've always liked D'arcy's Kitchen. I used to go there when they first opened in 98 or 99. We used to go out from work for an hour and have a big breakfast there and amazingly the whole place would be packed with other shameless office workers like us. Over the years their menu kept getting bigger and bigger. The food is always good, and the prices haven't increased. People used to say that when Starbucks comes to Oman Darcy's would go bust. Well Starbucks opened right next door and Darcy's only got stronger.


The only thing I don't like about them, besides the tiny tables that don't fit their huge food servings, is that they don't have a segregated non smoking area.



By the way I must have been to D'arcy's a hundred times over the years and yet I've never ordered any of the items you've tried. You should try their breakfasts, they're really. Try going on a weekend morning when the weather gets better, but go early or you wont find a place to sit.

I've been to Santino's many times since they opened. Most of the starters are good but I am yet to find a single main course that I've liked. I didn't like the pasta. Didn't like the sandwiches. And particularly not the pizzas. The only way for me to have a satisfying meal there is to have two starters.


O Sole Mio, the Italian restaurant on the other end of the Jawaharat Al Shatti building never disappoints. It might not always serve an outstanding Italian meal, but it's never bad.

Well.. I'm a corporate banker and I was in charge of financing retail and real estate projects for most of 2006 before I shifted my focus to industrial stuff so I have to keep my eyes and ears open for all projects that are happening in Oman.


As for MAFs projects.. they didn't start the hype la, all they did was register the two names. Well Qurum City Center is a project that's imminent, so the hype is definitely going to start soon. But since as you've already seen the name Mall of Oman is something that had to be registered from now even if the project is still two or three years away. They wouldn't want someone to come and build some tiny piece of shit mall and call it Mall of Oman taking that away from them.



By the way, Safeer Mall in Sohar was supposed to have a Carrefour but MAF and Safeer couldn't reach an agreement and it got scrapped. You'd know better than me, but people in Sohar are convinced that MAF already has the land to build a mall there. Sohar City Center, maybe? Or could it be that Mall of Oman will be in Sohar, not Muscat?

I'm gonna have try to use as much publicly available information as possible and be vague about the rest because I have direct information about this projects which I cannot disclose.


Yes, Qurum City Center is where that sign has been for the past three years. Originally they wanted to build a Carrefour. But they put that on hold when they decided to expand Muscat City Center first. So people started saying that the ROP wouldn't let MAF build the Carrefour. Well Muscat City Center's expansion is almost ready and apparently the has ROP agreed to sell MAF part of their land so now they can build a small mall instead of just a hypermarket. Late last year a contract to was given build just the foundations for the project which are now ready. Next step is the full fledged contract to build the mall which will be announced real soon. They are planning to work full pace on it and have it ready by the end of next year.



If you go to MAF's website you'll see that their strategy to building malls include different concepts: Regional Malls and Community Malls. A regional mall is one which is a destination of its own like Mall of the Emirates or Deira City Center. But Muscat City Center was considered a community mall until it was upgraded in the recent expansion. Qurum City Center will be a community mall. Therefore its size is probably less than 35,000 squar meters. (Muscat City Center is going to be about 65000 m2 after completion of expansion).



Mall of Oman is going to be something grand, just like Mall of the Emirates is compared to Deira City Center. But of course it won't be that big. It will not be announced till next year and wont open till late 2010. It might not even be in Muscat itself. It will be about twice the size of Muscat City Center.



As for the link you gave, that's the project now known as Muscat Grand Mall which is in the Tilal Al Khuwair project located behind Lulu in Al Ghubra, close to where you work. It's being done by Al Madina Real Estate Company. Details here: http://www.almadina-re.com/website/main.html</b... that satisfied your curiosity :)

You gotta tip. Always. But always tip cash. Never tip by adding it to the bill when you're paying by card. The owners almost always take that as additional income to them and rarely ever give it to the waiters, whereas when you give them cash they benefit from it immediately.


Ideally you should tip about 10% of the bill, but I don't see people doing that here. In the US if you don't tip the waiter he still gets taxed on the tip he didn't get. Usually the tip is just a couple of rials. I tip at least 1 rial but when we're out in a group and we're splitting the bill, we add a tip to the total before splitting it. Ya3ni, say the bill is 60 rials, add at least 5 rials as tip before splitting it among the group.

Indians luuuurve sizzlers. The more smoke and steam coming off the dish the better. I myself refuse to go to any restaurant where I come out stinking of sizzlers. Forget about the clothes, that stuff goes down to your pores. You need a shower afters.

The problem with Flavours is the horrible location. And not only is it located in an industrial area away, the outside of the restaurant isn't very visible. The biggest sign on the building is for a poultry company.


I'm glad you're recommending it, but I still can't see myself going out of my way to try it out.

I don't understand why anyone outside the USA would be excited over the iPhone. It won't be available anywhere outside the states till Xmas and we won't get it till next year by which time I hope it would have been much improved. As it is now the iPhone is pathetic. It doesn't even support MMS. It's an iPod that also makes calls. And without keys it is absolutely useless for even SMSing.

There was a movie made from the novel in 1987 with one of the best song soundtracks of that era. It was produced by Rick Rubin back when he was still known as a hip-hop producer. Robert Downey Jr. gave a really good performance in the movie.


I haven't read the book.

I got there a bit just as they started and left at 8.45. It bored the hell out of me. The first half an hour felt like I was stuck in time and it kept repeating over and over. What is strategy? Is it different than planning? Are planning and strategy the same thing? Is one dynamic and the other static? Is planning the way of executing strategy? Yada Yada Yada.. Barf. Couldn't take any more so I left. Would have been nice to have met you.


My pics on Facebook.

I've confirmed for it so I guess I might see you there.

How come you always use Uncle Bens rice, is it because it is easier to cook than basmati, or because it looks better in the pictures? Then again maybe you prefer it over basmati?