Telenor agrees LTE Roaming Exchange deal with Ooredoo Oman

Telenor signed an LTE Roaming Exchange agreement with Ooredoo Oman that it said will deliver industry-leading 4G roaming and customer experience to the Middle East-based operator's subscribers.

The roaming deal provides Ooredoo Oman's 2 million customers with access to 270 global 4G networks covered by Telenor direct peering agreements. The Ooredoo Oman agreement will using the Norway-headquartered operator's Diameter Routing Agent (DRA) to provide 4G voice and data roaming services, the operator said.

Telenor's international wholesale operating business Global Wholesale will fulfil the roaming exchange agreement.

Bjørn Iversen, CMO of Global Wholesale, said the agreement offers benefits to the subscribers of Telenor's direct peering partners in addition to Ooredoo Oman's customers, including improved call quality. Iversen explained that the roaming exchange deal also offers direct 4G access to 13 of Telenor's own global 4G networks.

Ooredoo Oman chief legal, regulatory and wholesale officer, Jim Maxell, said the operator has a "long-standing and important relationship with Telenor, and we are very satisfied with their ability to understand our needs and complex challenges in deploying LTE roaming."

Maxell added that Telenor "has been a pioneer with LTE Roaming, both globally and in many local markets," and said that Telenor's "extensive global 4G coverage is of significant importance" by enabling "quality roaming in both our networks."

The Ooredoo Oman deal extends Telenor Global Wholesale's reach into the Middle East market and follows a similar deal with Telekom Austria that was signed in May and opened the door to markets in Central and Eastern Europe, the Nordic region and Asia.

Telenor and Ooredoo are also credited with boosting mobile penetration in Myanmar, where the pair operate competing 3G mobile networks.

In May, Telenor Myanmar CEO Petter Borre Furberg said the entry of both companies had contributed to an increase in penetration from around 10 per cent prior to their launch, to around 42 per cent by the end of the first quarter of 2015.

For more:
- see Telenor's LTE Roaming Exchange announcement

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