By Mohamed Alaa El-Din
A unified price plan was agreed upon between all four mobile operator companies, Telecom Egypt, Vodafone, Mobinil, and Etisalat, Executive President of the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA), Hesham El-Alaily, stated.
In a statement to Daily News Egypt, El-Alaily said the agreement included unifying the prices, through which Telecom Egypt obtains services from the three mobile operator companies. Each is according to the area agreed upon, provided that Telecom Egypt re-sells it to the people as a default operator.
Through activating the unified licence, Telecom Egypt offers mobile services as a default operator. It will buy wholesale minutes from all three mobile operators and then re-sell them to the people in return for paying the government’s licence of EGP 2.5bn. Mobile operator companies have the right to be given a licence for fixed phone services in return for paying EGP 100m.
According to El-Alaily, no company was forced to sign this agreement, denying the rumour regarding Telecom Egypt’s request to the NTRA to permit all three mobile operators to offer prices to all geographical locations so that Telecom Egypt can choose the best of them, instead of choosing the best operator for each location. Vodafone will offer services to Telecom Egypt in Alexandria and the Delta region, Mobinil will serve Cairo, and Etisalat will serve the rest of the governorates.
The cabinet previously approved the initial plan of the unified licence and discussed the plan once again with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in order to implement it. Meanwhile, NTRA is holding intense meetings with the four mobile operator companies in order to resolve all problematic areas prior to implementing the “unified licence”.
