By Mohamed Alaa El-Din and Aisha Zedan
Many years were wasted in negotiations between the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and mobile companies on one hand, and the National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (NTRA) along with the four phone operators on the other.
The negotiations aimed at implementing the unified license, but things got complicated, and negotiations reached a standstill before the former minister of communications Atef Helmy.
During this period, former CEO of Telecom Egypt (TE), Mohamed Amin El-Nawawy, demanded his company’s right to offer mobile services through the virtual license. He did not miss an opportunity in the media to express his desire, as well as the company’s, to do so. However, the issue was further complicated after Khaled Negm took over as Minister of Communications.
A few weeks after he was appointed Minister of Communications, Negm had issues with the TE management over decreasing Internet prices. He requested that the company reduce the infrastructure’s rental price for Internet service providers so that they can reduce prices, a request refused by El-Nawawy.
The minister, who announced several times that the unified license is not among the government’s priorities, requested that TE’s management prepare a centre for operating Internet services, as it was about to receive the fourth license. He also said that the three mobile companies will train TE’s workers, a request refused by the company.
From his end, he considered this as a technical and financial failure to provide mobile services. As a result, the Egyptian cabinet dismissed official representatives in TE’s board of directors, including El-Nawawy.
