State-owned telephone company Telecom Egypt, will be the first mobile operator to buy the fourth-generation (4G) mobile licence in the country, state news agency MENA said on Wednesday.
Egypt's telecom regulator is offering licences for the high-speed 4G mobile technology to the three companies currently offering mobile services -- Orange Egypt, Vodafone Egypt, and Etisalat -- as well as to Telecom Egypt (TE), which holds the landline monopoly.
The National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA) is due to hold a conference on Wednesday during which TE's licence will be signed, which will be attended by Communications and Information Technology Minister Yasser Al-Qadi.
The other operators have until 22 September to pay required financial obligations and sign the licences, MENA added.
Egypt is selling 4G licenves as part of a long-awaited scheme to reform the country’s telecoms sector, which will see TE, which owns a 45 percent stake in Vodafone Egypt, directly enter the mobile phone market.
The Egyptian government says the introduction of the new technology aims to maximise revenues for the state coffers and improve services provided to citizens,
The government announced the plan to introduce 4G in 2014 and said at the time that TE would be allowed to offer mobile services if it paid EGP 2.5 billion Egyptian pounds and sold its Vodafone stake within a year of offering the services.
The reforms will also allow Egypt's three mobile operators to offer fixed-line telephone services for the first time.
Al-Qadi said in June the government hopes to collect a total of EGP 22.3 billion ($2.5 billion) in licence fees.
