Telecom Egypt to become the country’s fourth cellco by mid-2013

Telecom Egypt will be allocated a mobile operator licence by the middle of next year, while the incumbent mobile networks will be allowed to provide landline services, the regulator has confirmed.

It has long been expected that Telecom Egypt – which owns a 45 per cent stake in Vodafone Egypt -would receive its own mobile licence, in exchange for allowing the mobile networks to resell Telecom Egypt’s landline services.

The mobile networks will not be permitted to build their own landline network under the draft proposals, so will still be dependent on the landline monopoly operator.

Also, Telecom Egypt won’t be granted any radio spectrum, so its licence will effectively limit it to being an MVNO, probably over the Vodafone network.

The regulator is moving towards converting all the country’s communications licences into unified telecom concessions that allow all companies to offer all services.