Times of Oman :

MUSCAT — The Muscat Municipality, in cooperation with Oman Mobile, will soon launch a new service, allowing motorists to use the car-parking facilities by sending an SMS. The new service will enable car-owners to park their vehicles by sending an SMS without going for other modes of payment prevalent for parking at present.
The service is the first of its kind in the Middle East, according to the deputy director-general of investment and income at the Directorate of Administrative and Financial Affairs of the Muscat Municipality.

The new service is an addition to the electronic services already adopted by the municipality, aimed at facilitating the services and easing the procedures for properly making use of them, he added.

Those who wish to utilise the new service will just have to send a message (SMS) to the number 90091, mentioning the registration number of his/her car. The sender will immediately get a response from the municipality in the form of a message confirming reservation.

The reservation charge will be 60 baisas, which includes 10 baisas towards the message charge. The reservation charges will be added to the phone bill of the motorist. The new system will also send a reminding message to the user’s phone five minutes prior to the expiry of the period of reservation. The users can also inquire about the remaining time by sending the word “Time” to 90090.

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even though this means that parking will cost 10 baizas more , I think it's a very nice move and could make things alot more simpler and easier.

yeah nabhan i think that will be great but dont yoyu think there will be some coplications like the persone who comes and gives the cars a ticket how would he know if he payed....

yeah nabhan i think that will be great but dont yoyu think there will be some coplications like the persone who comes and gives the cars a ticket how would he know if he payed....
I thought about that as well . My guess is that they will have some sort of new electronic checking system.

I wonder how this will work out 2 be like !
we shall see!

Wow, these people come up with newer and newer ways to rip us off with ...

and to make our life easier ..

how many times I had to realy dig for coins in order to park and when I dont get them I feel embarassed and try to go to shops to get them .. this certainly would be much easier .. If I have the coin, I would use it ..otherwise I dont mind paying 10 baiza more instead of going to shops asking for coins.

Great idea really!! Its helpful for these who cant find coins, & for these who find it hard to move from their place to re-pay.

interesting, perhaps now for those who come check in the parking zone, will have to carry a palm device for example to be able to inquire about each car parked in a certain zone. Or perhaps download the list of cars that are parked... hmm... I wonder which method they will use. Will just have to wait and see...

I guess for these who keeps on checking the parking zones to find if there is any car been parked without paying, they will have this tool to check on by the car number & if that car already asked for a period of time to park or not.

Ya salam ta6owor! first of its kind in the Middle East eh?
but what about the old ppl who don't know how to use sms? :p or the ppl who don't even have a cell phone?
lol anyway let's wait and see :D

Queen, those people can use the current method of putting the coin in the machine ;)

The new service is an addition to the electronic services already adopted by the municipality.
oh right i didn't notice :D my mistake

Seems like a new strategy to beat Nawras , maybe a bit desperate but ok ;)

Empress, how come when nawras comes with a creative idea people never think that its a stratgy to beat Oman Mobile?!
its the nature of competitive market, you need to be creative to win the custoemrs!!

Wow 9ara6ah its a great idea to be honest! Its about time that Oman Mobile started bein creative wihtout copying ideas ;)

People started talking about the mobile operators & if they are creative & so on. I believe the idea exists somewhere else in the world, so its not about creating it, its more about applying it here in Oman.

Why we dont give credit to Muscat Municipality?!! Maybe they are the one who brought it up & then they might suggested it Oman Mobile as the major number of mobile users are using their services.

to answer how the inspectors would know which car paid or not... nice to have High-Tech Inspectors... So this means car owners could pay for their parking ticket even while having lunch... and if its time to have it renewed, no need to step out to get a new slip if you would like to extend your time... simple... but do you get charged for the reminder sent to you???

Motorists can pay parking fee through an SMS

Staff Report
Muscat:
Motorists, not carrying coins, can now relax and park their vehicles in pay and park zones in Muscat by simply sending an SMS, a first of its kind service in the Middle East.

"We have successfully tested the system and by the end of Ramadan residents in Muscat would be able to use the new facility of park and pay through SMS," Yaqoob Dur Mohammad Al Balushi, Director of Information System Directorate, told Gulf News yesterday.

Motorists can send a SMS to the number 90091, mentioning the registration number of his/her car. The sender will immediately get a message confirming reservation from the municipality.

"The reservation charge will be 60 baisas, which includes 10 baisas towards the message charge. The reservation charges will be added to the phone bill of the motorist," he said.

The new system will also send a reminding message to the user's phone five minutes prior to the expiry of the period of reservation.

The users can also inquire about the remaining time by sending the word "Time" to 90090.

Explaining how the inspectors on field would recognise if the payment was made by SMS, Al Balushi said: "All our inspectors carry a Personal Data Analyser [PDA] ... connected to the system installed at the head office."

The inspectors would enter the number of a parked car without a ticket in their PDAs to verify if the vehicle owner has paid through SMS or not, he added.
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recived via e-mail, guess it was published by one of the local newspapers...

The inspectors would enter the number of a parked car without a ticket in their PDAs to verify if the vehicle owner has paid through SMS or not, he added.

i hope by ticket he doesnt mean a paper slip... beats the point of having it dont via SMS...