Egypt
to liberalize its fixed telecom market in 2010
Isabelle Paradis
June 2010
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According to the information released by HOT TELECOM
(www.hottelecom.com) in its latest report “Egypt
Telecom country profile”, the Egypt government
has invited bids for two licenses for "triple-play"
cable, telephone and Internet services which it
expects to generate $1 billion in new investments
within five years.
The licensed consortium will be allowed to build
and operate telecom networks inside closed communities
containing at least 50 residential units or a maximum
of 5,000 units, and will serve the residential compounds
emerging across the country, particularly near Cairo,
the Sinai resort city of Sharm al-Sheikh, and on
Egypt’s Mediterranean coast.
Competition over the two licenses for triple-play
services has however been limited to two consortiums.
The first being Tele Tech and Vodafone Group plc
and the second is Orascom Telecom units (Wind and
LINKdotNET) and Mobinil.
At the end of 2009, Egypt had 10.31 million fixed
subscribers, representing a 13.3% penetration rate.
The fixed market has continued to see healthy growth
in the past 5 years with an average growth rate
of 6.4% between 2002 and 2008. However, it has suffered
from a drastic 13.0% decline in its number of fixed
lines in 2009. “The number of fixed subscribers
is forecasted to stagnate at an average rate of
0.3% over the next 5 years to reach 10.4 million
at the end of 2014” HOT TELECOM’s President
Isabelle Paradis said.
At the end of 2009, from the total fixed subscribers,
76.0% lived in urban areas and the remaining 24.0%
were from rural areas. At the end of January 2010,
the fixed subscriber base increased slightly to
10.37 million, with a capacity of local public switching
exchanges of 14.4 million and a waiting list of
only 92,600. At that time, there were also 45,071
public pay phones and 54,399 international communication
circuits.
Find out more about the Egypt fixed, mobile and
Internet markets in HOT TELECOM’s new 38-page
Ecuador country profile: http://www.hottelecom.com/egypt-copr.html
