Framework to regulate smart cities this year: TRA

The regulatory framework for smart cities is likely to be ready by the end of this year, according to a top official. Speaking to the Observer recently, Omar al Ismaili, CEO of TRA, said, "There is no limit on how this concept of smart cities will evolve. It is based on guidelines, including that from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the ISO standard. There is a national effort regarding the smart city and this is a good example of a collaborative regulation." It has been prepared in cooperation with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (MoUHP) and the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology (MoTCIT).

Oman Vision 2040 identifies smart cities as a strategic national initiative that acts as a source of economic growth, creating jobs and a tool to diversify the economy.

The Oman National Spatial Strategy (ONSS) has been developed to accelerate Oman’s smart city journey of urbanisation and to capitalise on the potential for social, economic and environmental development.

A Smart City system is about the integration of all the utilities, infrastructure, and citizen services on a single platform and a unified dashboard for the efficient, reliable and resilient operation of the city.

"There is a need to create and suggest frameworks to achieve the interoperability among all the devices and layers at every interface in the networks, be it a smart home network, a smart building network, a smart city/community network, or the smart grid network. Development of smart cities infrastructure and services is reliant on a strong Information and Communications Technology (ICT) infrastructure and governance framework where the roles and responsibilities of all entities that contribute to ICT governance are set out clearly and transparently," the TRA said.

The TRA will regulate the following areas as per the approved strategy, which includes competition in the smart city sector, creating a level playing field for all ICT service providers, imposing obligations to ensure an effective and competitive environment, monitoring the players in the market to ensure that they don’t engage in anti-competitive practices, ensure fairness and transparency of tariffs for ICT products and services.