...On 5 January, the Sultan of Oman, His Majesty Sultan Haitham Bin Tarik, issued a royal decree (No. 4/2021) granting a first class license to Oman Future Telecommunications Company (OFT), making it the third mobile operator in Oman, in addition to Oman Telecommunications Company S.A.O.G. (Omantel, Ba3 negative) and Ooredoo Oman. The move is credit negative for Omantel because a third operator will increase competition in the Omani market and dent Omantel's revenue and cash flow generation in an already difficult operating environment. OFT, which signed a strategic agreement with Vodafone Group Plc (Baa2 negative), will roll out a new mobile network and a number of other telecommunication services under the Vodafone brand in Oman. We expect the new operator to start providing services during 2021 now that the license has been granted. We also expect the third operator to tap into the existing customer bases of Omantel and Ooredoo Oman in a shrinking domestic mobile market, decreasing their...