Egypt may offer 4G mobile-phone licenses to international telecommunications companies, National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (NTRA) head Mustafa Abdul Wahid said after the three local operators rejected the government’s terms, reports Bloomberg. Abdul Wahid said the NTRA will present its board options for offering the new licenses on 10 October, confirming that all three local operators had rejected the licenses. Arabiya TV also cited Telecommunications Minister Yasser El Qady as saying the new licenses would be offered under terms different from those presented to domestic operators.
El Qady said 4G service will go ahead as planned, and will be offered by Telecom Egypt, according to the report. The rejection marked the second time a deadline for the offer had passed with Vodafone Egypt, Orange Egypt and Etisalat Misr declining to secure the next-generation license. Only Telecom Egypt, the state-run fixed-line monopoly, has a 4G license, which it acquired for EGP 7.08 billion.
Orange’s main objection was the quantity of spectrum offered by the government, which “would not allow us to offer 4G service up to international" or the company’s standards, Ayman Essam, the operator’s senior director for legal and corporate affairs, said by phone. The license terms didn’t offer enough spectrum for efficient operation, or allow consumers to experience significant increase in speed, Vodafone Egypt said in an e-mailed statement. The company would be interested in a license if the terms were revised, it said.
Abdul Wahid rejected the companies’ claims about insufficient spectrum being made available, saying "of course it will not be enough for the 90 million users, but it’s sufficient" as a starting point. The same terms "are void" and won’t be offered again, the telecom authority said in an e-mailed statement.
