CAIRO: Egypt is looking to spend more than $4 billion to enhance broadband services in 2011, the telecom minister announced, which will entail revitalizing plans for WiMax service in the country.
Minister of Communications and Information Technology Tarek Kamel said on Monday that the ministry will announce strategic details in the first half of 2011 concerning the expansion of broadband services in Egypt, reported Al-Masry Al-Youm.
WiMax, or Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, could be an alternative among licenses, the National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority chairman said.
An MCIT spokesperson confirmed the news to Daily News Egypt, but could not elaborate on the minister’s plans, which were announced during a workshop with the telecom regulator and the World Trade Organization.
Amr Elalfy, director of research and telecommunications specialist at Cairo-based investment firm CI Capital, said the news is positive for the sector and is directly “in line with the government’s previous plans” to drive the uptake of internet connections in Egypt.
Egypt “has been talking about WiMaxfor a long time,” he said.
In 2007, there was much optimism surrounding the announcement of a project dubbed "While in Egypt Stay Connected," funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which planned to install WiMax in Luxor. The government granted the project a temporary license to install WiMax, but since then, developments have been muted.
Asked how else the government could provide further impetus toward augmenting the number of internet connections, Elalfy noted that to this end, the government is striving hard to establish rules and regulations, but, in his view, the private sector should be playing a larger role.
On one hand, proper infrastructure is a prerequisite for bringing new customers online; on the other, these same customers are needed to create the demand necessary for building new infrastructure, he added.
The government should offer incentives to the private sector, which will allow it to play a more active role in realizing the potential of the internet in Egypt.
In general, he noted that growth in the sector is high.
CI Capital explained in a recent report that “internet use exhibited an even higher growth rate of 30 percent year-on-year, to reach around 20.3 million users as of September 2010,” representing a penetration rate of 26 percent.
Nevertheless, Elalfy underlined that obstacles remain: Owning a mobile internet device is onerous, illiteracy rates are relatively high, a dearth of rich Arabic content is manifest, all of which is topped off by rampant illegal connection sharing.
CI Capital, in its report on the Egyptian telecommunications sector’s performance in 2010, highlighted the issue of Arabic content, stating, “Egypt is supporting the development of additional Arabic content by allowing registration of Arabic domain names.”
With regard to this last hurdle, Elalfy pointed out that the government’s efforts to promote triple play licenses, which combine cable television, telephone and internet licenses, should act as a stopgap measure, adding nonetheless that its uptake remains “limited.”
Triple play licenses received the green light in late September, when the government announced it would invite bids for licenses — due in January 2011, which are expected to generate $1 billion in new investments within five years, Reuters reported.
