20 Cables, 120 Cities: Oman Pitches Its Digital Investment Case

For three days this week, Muscat was where the region's telecom and digital infrastructure leaders came to talk about investing in Oman. From 11 to 13 October 2026, the Sultanate hosted the fourth meeting of the International Telecommunication Union's (ITU) Digital Innovation Board. On the last of those days it also hosted the SAMENA Council Leaders' AXIS 2026 conference, themed "Oman: The New Geography of Digital Investment". Both events pushed the same idea: Oman's subsea cables, data centre plans, space ambitions and energy resources should earn it a much bigger share of the region's AI and cloud economy.

📌 Key Takeaways

• Oman hosted the ITU Digital Innovation Board's fourth meeting from 11 to 13 October and used it to promote its own digital economy roadmap.
• SAMENA Council's Leaders' AXIS 2026, hosted by Omantel under TRA patronage, presented Oman to international investors as a digital infrastructure destination.
• Omantel's selling points: more than 20 subsea cable systems, about 120,000 km of cable and direct links to more than 120 cities.
• Generative AI, compute and energy for data centres were at the centre of the agenda, alongside a dedicated space and satellite session.
• No deals or MoUs were announced. Organisers framed both events as groundwork for partnerships in the next phase.

🗓️ What Happened in Muscat This Week

The two events ran back to back and shared several key players, including the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) and the ITU's development bureau. According to a post-event SAMENA Council release, Leaders' AXIS 2026 took place on 13 October in Muscat, straight after the ITU board meeting in the same city.

The reporting did not name a venue for either event. Together, though, they gave Oman two kinds of audience in one week: global policymakers working on digital innovation, and the operators, infrastructure investors and technology firms who decide where data centres and cables get built.

🏛️ The ITU Digital Innovation Board: Oman's Roadmap on Show

The three-day ITU board meeting opened on Sunday 11 October, Oman Observer reported, citing the Oman News Agency. The board belongs to the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Alliance for Digital Development, part of the ITU's Telecommunication Development Bureau. A Tanzanian report on the session says the board has 38 members and advises the ITU on digital innovation, entrepreneurship and inclusive digital economic growth.

Dr Ali bin Amer Al Shidhani, Under-Secretary for Communications and IT at the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology, said Oman "has embarked on a drive to develop its own digital economy roadmap", according to Fana News's version of the ONA report. He said he hoped the talks would open up new partnerships and projects.

TRA CEO Eng. Omar bin Hamdan Al Ismaili called digital transformation "a key pillar of Oman Vision 2040". He pointed to the regulator's investment in telecoms, digital infrastructure, emerging technologies and national capacity building, Oman Observer noted. The programme also included:

• A review of the alliance's strategic direction and its priorities for the next phase
• Results from ITU acceleration centres and strategic foresight studies
• Field visits showing Oman's telecom and digital experience
• An exhibition of Omani telecom and IT companies, including SMEs working on digital innovation

💼 Leaders' AXIS 2026: "The New Geography of Digital Investment"

The investment pitch came on 13 October. Times of Oman reported that the SAMENA Council Leaders' AXIS conference was held under the auspices of the TRA's Al Ismaili and hosted by Omantel, which sits on the SAMENA Council's board. It brought together representatives from telecoms, digital infrastructure, data centres, cloud computing, space and satellites, energy and investment.

A pre-event SAMENA release from 25 September organised the agenda around five areas:

• Investment and economic diversification
• Connected digital infrastructure
• AI, compute and national digital capability
• Space, satellite and future connectivity
• Renewable energy and sustainable infrastructure

Speakers from the investment side of government also took part. The post-event release says OPAZ, the Oman Investment Authority and Invest Oman gave insights on economic direction and investment, and that a closed-door Flagship Roundtable on project readiness and the investment environment ran alongside the main sessions.

SAMENA Council CEO Bocar Ba summed up the goal as "creating enhanced value inside the Sultanate". He told Oman Observer that Oman "could serve as a regional platform for telecommunications, space-related activities and broader digital development".

🏗️ Infrastructure is not enough on its own

One of the more grounded comments came from Abdulrahman Saud Al Humaimi, Zone Services Manager at OPAZ. He argued that "attracting investors... required more than infrastructure", Oman Observer reported, and that companies need a connected ecosystem in which they can operate and grow. In other words, cables and land only matter if the regulation, talent and services around them work too.

🌊 Omantel's Pitch: Cables, Cities and Startups

Omantel, as host, set out the assets behind Oman's case. According to the operator's release on Zawya and the ONA report in Times of Oman:

The startup figure is not consistent. The post-event reports say more than 80 startups, but the September pre-event release said Innovation Labs had backed more than 100. Read it as a range for now. The same release describes ZOI as a joint venture that combines subsea and terrestrial networks, cloud and data centre assets, with a carrier-neutral regional data centre strategy.

The pitch also fits Omantel's recent results. Earlier this year we reported on Omantel's ICT revenue jumping 63.8% in H1 2026, which shows the company is relying more on digital services than on basic connectivity.

🤖 Generative AI, Compute and the Energy Question

AI ran through the whole agenda. In his remarks, Omantel CEO Eng. Aladdin Baitfadhil said Oman has "important strengths across this value chain, including connectivity, infrastructure, talent", according to the Omantel release.

Oman Observer reported that he sees openings in data sovereignty, enterprise and consumer AI applications, and startups. The conference CEO Dialogue looked at how AI, cloud and data-heavy services are changing what infrastructure and enterprises need, and how to match investment to real demand, SAMENA said.

Energy was treated as a core issue. The ONA report says delegates discussed power availability, reliable supply and sustainability as factors in digital infrastructure investment, and how to plan computing capacity together with energy infrastructure. That matters for Oman, where developers such as O-Green have targeted 200MW of AI data centre capacity by 2028. The pre-event agenda also mentioned a possible "Muscat Framework for Cross-Infrastructure Sustainability and Renewable Energy". No post-event report confirmed whether it was adopted.

🛰️ A dedicated space and satellite session

Space had its own session covering ground infrastructure, data services, downstream applications, skills and national capability, according to SAMENA. The timing fits the wider news: later in the same week, the ministry oversaw a deal between Durri Space and Cailabs to build three optical ground stations in Oman by 2028, as Oman Observer reported.

⚠️ The Limitation: Talk, Not Yet Transactions

Neither event produced a headline deal. None of the reports or releases we reviewed mention a signed agreement, MoU or investment commitment from Leaders' AXIS or the ITU board meeting. The ONA report says the aim was to identify partners and areas of cooperation "that could be developed in the next phase". SAMENA itself called AXIS "a work in progress" in its post-event release.

That is normal for an investment-promotion conference, but it means the results will show up later, if at all. Things to watch over the coming months:

• New cable landing or carrier-neutral data centre announcements tied to ZOI
• Hyperscaler or AI compute tenants committing to Omani sites, including the Muscat AI Special Zone
• Power purchase or renewable energy agreements linked to data centre projects
• Publication of the national digital economy roadmap Dr Al Shidhani referred to

📊 The Numbers Behind the Pitch

Oman does have some investment numbers to point to. According to an SAP release from its Muscat event on 6 October, which cites ministry figures announced in January 2026, Oman attracted OMR 1.2 billion in communications and IT investment in 2025. About OMR 65 million of that went into artificial intelligence. The same release says the Government Digital Transformation Programme's overall performance rose from 73% at the end of 2024 to 94% at the end of 2025.

The AI share is still small, roughly 5% of total ICT investment. Closing that gap is what this week's meetings were about. The government has already created a home for AI investment: our earlier coverage of Oman's AI Special Zone and its 2027 start date explains how that zone is meant to work. For the wider regional picture, this analysis of Oman's recent investment inflows compared with Saudi Arabia's shows how Oman performs against much larger neighbours.

🇴🇲 The Vision 2040 Connection

Officials linked both events directly to Oman Vision 2040. The TRA's Al Ismaili described digital transformation as a key pillar of the vision and of economic diversification, and the ONA report on AXIS said the conference aimed to position the Sultanate as a "gateway to the Gulf". The idea is to use Oman's location between Asia, Africa and the Gulf, which already brings in more than 20 cable systems, to attract higher-value activity such as compute, cloud and satellite services instead of letting data simply pass through.

💡 Why This Matters for Oman

This week, Oman made its case for digital investment to two audiences in one place: the ITU's global innovation network and the region's operators and infrastructure investors. The case rests on real assets: cables, connectivity to more than 120 cities, a designated AI zone, energy potential and a growing space sector.

The OPAZ comment is the one to remember, though. Investors need more than infrastructure. For Omani startups, engineers and SMEs, the benefit depends on whether these conversations lead to signed data centre tenants, cable landings and AI compute projects that create local jobs and supplier contracts. Muscat has been pitched as "the new geography of digital investment". The next six to twelve months will show whether investors agree.