Wednesday, Mar 07, 2012
DUBAI (Zawya Dow Jones)--The Egyptian Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, or MCIT, will issue a tender for the country's first mobile virtual network operator, or MVNO, in about four weeks time, a ministry spokesman said Wednesday.
However, existing mobile operators in Egypt fear that the introduction of MVNO--which sells mobile services while leasing capacity from regular mobile network operators--will lead to increased competition for them.
Earlier this week, the Egyptian Company for Mobile Services, or Mobinil, told Zawya Dow Jones in an e-mail that Egypt's mobile operators have let the National Telecom Regulatory Authority know of their opposition to the introduction of an MVNO service. Their opposition was "based on the fact that such a move would not be for the benefit of the market currently under the existing margins," the telco said.
State-owned Telecom Egypt, the only provider of fixed-line services in the country, in late February said that it expects to apply for an MVNO license by the end of March. The telco has repeatedly showed interest in tapping into the lucrative market by becoming a fully integrated operator.
Separately, MCIT said that 4G licenses will be available in the Egyptian market after mid 2012.
"Through the ministry's broadband initiative, 4G licenses will be available after June 2012," Mohamed Hanafy, the ministry's spokesman said via telephone.
Mobile telephone subscribers in Egypt grew 18% year-on-year to 83 million in 2011, representing a penetration rate of around 104.4%, up from 90% at end-2010.
-By Shereen El Gazzar, Dow Jones Newswires; +971 444 61684; Shereen.elgazzar@dowjones.com
Copyright (c) 2012 Dow Jones & Co.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
07-03-12 1216GMT
