(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) Muscat- Several popular Internet applications and services are not available in Oman. Paid streaming subscription service YouTube Premium (YouTube Red) and music streaming service Spotify cannot be accessed here.

One customer said, 'I bought an Alexa [a virtual assistant] from souq.com but was disheartened to learn that the Amazon app doesn't work or even can be downloaded here. I had to go to India and download the app and make the voice control device work in Oman. But I have to sacrifice many things. The device is configured with settings of India; hence news, nearby restaurants, theatre timings, weather or traffic updates cannot be accessed through Alexa here. It can be used only for music and to-do meetings.'

Tariq al Barwani, an IT expert said that there are some apps that work as per the compilations of the companies. 'Maybe, these companies are yet to have the infrastructure in the respective countries. One must understand that there are many legal and technical things that need to be involved before initiating such a process and accessibility of such applications in a particular region.'

Riyadh al Balushi, an IT legal expert said that there are some content services that are not available in Oman due to copyright licensing restrictions, and not because the Government of Oman has something against them. 'An example of this is Spotify. Spotify has contracts with all the rights holders of the music that it makes available on the Internet. These contracts allow Spotify to stream the songs covered by these contracts in specific countries or regions only, and not all over the world.'

He added that in some cases, the restrictions might not be a result of copyright licensing issues, but might be due to other commercial or practical issues.

For example, some shopping websites might not ship parcels to Oman because shipping to the sultanate is too expensive or because they might not be able to provide support services to Omani customers.

Balushi added, 'Of course, it is also possible that some services are not available because Oman's legal system does not allow them.

'For example, Uber is not available in Oman because Omani law does not allow individuals to offer transportation services without a licence from the government and requires apps such as Uber to be operated physically from within the country.

'We must look at each application on its own to understand why it is not available in Oman.'

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