By Mohamed Alaa El-Din
The National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (NTRA) has sent a request to Telecom Egypt (TE)-affiliate, TE Data, to decide on the final date for proposing reduced internet prices.
A senior official at the NTRA said that a deadline for TE Data’s proposal of the new prices for its internet services was requested from the company. The official ruled out any changes to the prices and maximum download amounts that were agreed upon, which are set to be offered to customers by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and TE.
The ministry and TE have agreed to offer reduced internet prices, with the agreement, including 1 MB offered for EGP 50 with approximately 10 GB download permitted, whilst a speed of 1 MB with approximately 100 GB download capabilities will cost EGP 95. The agreement also included offering 2 MB with 140 GB download for EGP 140, and 4 MB with about 150 GB for EGP 200, while the 8 MB package will come with 300 GB download for EGP 350.
The official said that the NTRA asked TE to quickly meet the requirements in order to propose the new prices. The NTRA has emphasised that a final date for improving the internet and calculating the actual cost for the internet services should also be decided upon, to ensure that no one will offer the services at low and unfair prices.
The ADSL internet service’s business volume in Egypt exceeds EGP 3bn annually, with around 66% of the total business’s revenues going to TE Data. The number of ADSL subscribers amounts to 3.2 million, with TE Data having the biggest market share at 67.3%; the rest of the market is distributed between Link, Vodafone and Etisalat.
Fadi Jundi, President and COO of NOOR for internet services, said that TE has yet to send out the new prices for renting infrastructure, and as a result, the new internet prices were not offered.
TE seeks to conduct new agreements in infrastructure rentals, and aims at reducing the offered prices in favour of private internet companies. The new deals would offer renting the STM-4 network for EGP 281,600 annually, the STM-16 network for EGP 901,100 annually, and the Ethernet network for EGP 352,000 annually.
Jundi added that his company has not yet received any official communications from the Ministry of Communications and the NTRA on the internet prices and the reductions in the infrastructure renting prices. He said that they were only informed of the new prices from the news, considering this step as a correction of the prices, not a reduction.
For his part, Ramy Ragab, Head of Data Link, one of the authorised distributors of TE Data, said that he has not yet received any instructions on the new TE Data prices. However, an offer of a 50% reduction in the prices was sent out before the Eid Al-Fitr celebrations, but was halted before being reactivated.
Ragab asserted that the subscriptions for the 512 KB speed remain valid, and that TE Data has not sent out any decision regarding the suspension of accounts using that speed. The new price list, announced by Minister of Communications Khaled Negm before the Eid Al-Fitr celebrations, included both the 512 KB and 256 KB speeds.
