By Mohamed Alaa El-Din
The monopolistic practices by Telecom Egypt (TE) in the supply and installation of multi-service access node (MSAN) units and new fibre-optic lines has lost Internet service providers (ISPs) in the Egyptian market their old clients, Etisalat Egypt said in a statement.
However, the company decided to reduce ADSL prices and provided better tariffs for Internet temporarily.
Etisalat Egypt confirmed that the recently adopted Internet tariffs are conditioned on an agreement with the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA) on infrastructure rental prices. If an agreement is not reached, the company will have to suspend these new discounted prices for new customers and revert to old prices.
According to a company official, the company revealed, during its meetings with the NTRA, the current cost structure, to support the company’s position and prove that the new prices cannot be sustained unless TE reduces infrastructure rental prices.
For his part, CEO of Telecom Egypt Osama Yassin said that TE has already reduced its infrastructure rental prices during the last period to help reduce ADSL prices by ISPs.
Yassin told Daily News Egypt that Etisalat’s demands for further reductions are unrealistic. He added that he will meet with Etisalat officials within days to discuss their demands and cooperation in implementation procedures.
Etisalat Egypt recently introduced new competitive prices for ADSL services at based on the reductions in infrastructure rental prices put forward by TE, according to a report by Pharos Financial. The report outlined the new rates for the infrastructure, which included an annual rental price of EGP 281,600 for a STM-4 module and a rental price of EGP 901,100 for a STM-16 module, while the price of ETHERNET was set at EGP 352,000.
