Egypt government’s plans to launch 4G in 2016 to boost development in this sector over the 2016-2017 fiscal year. Minister of ICT Yasser El-Kady was the one who made the announcement on December 13, 2015, during conference on Information and Communication Technologies held in Cairo.

According to him, negotiations are currently ongoing with various governmental actors namely the National Telecom Regulatory Authority (NTRA) to set all conditions necessary to effectively deploy the technology. Mustafa Abdel Wahid, acting chief executive of NTRA said the implementation of the technology currently depends on the large number of potential users of 4G and the need to coordinate its introduction with changes in frequencies used for television. With the Digital Terrestrial Television coming online, more frequencies used for television will be available, but this is not yet the case.

Osama Yassin, CEO Telecom Egypt, said his firm was fully prepared to become an integrated provider of 4G. Its board of directors appointed a committee to oversee and confirm that the company is indeed ready for the deployment of the technology. Now, it is just awaiting licence final form to finalize preparations.