On May 15, 2016, Egypt’s National Telecom Regulatory Authority (NTRA) will launch process to award 4G mobile licences, Minister of Telecommunication and Information Technology, Yasser Al Qady, said on May 4, 2016, at a press conference. During a council meeting he held on the same day, he added that the decision was taken by the government.

Egyptians have been waiting for 4G since 2014. Yasser Al Qady admitted at the press conference that Egypt was indeed behind schedule for the launching of 4G. A delay which could be due to talks between the telecom regulator and actors of the market to set all conditions required for the good deployment of the technology. Moreover, high-capacity TV frequencies associated with digital terrestrial television were not yet available.

With 4G landing in Egypt, competition among telecom operators will be tougher. Truly, Telecom Egypt for some time now has declared it was ready to gain more market shares. Also, Vodafone Egypt’s CEO, Ahmed Essam, indicated that his firm updated its network infrastructure to host broadband. The firm has in fact already set the segment (value-added) on which it will focus once the technology is operational.

By introducing 4G, Egypt’s government aims to increase by 10% the growth of its telecom and ICT sector over the next fiscal year (2016-2017).

Muriel Edjo