The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology published a report on the fourth quarter of 2015, indicating a decline in how much consumers paid for mobile internet telecommunication services, compared to the corresponding period of 2014.
According to the report, the cost of mobile services declined from $2.9 during the fourth quarter of 2014 to $2.6 in the fourth quarter of 2015. Asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) internet prices fell from $10.4 during the last three months of 2014 to $6.3 during the corresponding period of 2015.
According to the report, the cost of using a mobile phone is calculated according to the price paid in advance for every 30 calls per month, distributed over the same mobile network and over competing mobile networks; during peak and non-peak times and on weekends, in addition to 100 text messages.
ADSL internet prices are calculated according to the lowest price of a monthly subscription for an internet company with the highest market share of subscribers.
The report also revealed that the telecommunications sector’s contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rose by 7.3% during the fourth quarter of 2015 compared to the corresponding period of 2014. The sector’s total contribution to GDP reached approximately EGP 14.2bn during the period from October to December 2015, compared to EGP 13.2bn during the corresponding period of 2014, an increase of almost EGP 1bn.
The contribution of the telecommunications and IT sectors to the state’s GDP was about 3.1% during the fourth quarter of 2015, compared to 2.9% during the corresponding period of 2014.
The number of mobile users grew slightly in January 2016 compared to December 2015, according to a report by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.
The report indicated that the number of mobile users increased from 94 million users in December 2015 to 94.16 million users in January 2016, a growth of 0.15%.
According to statistics cited in the report, the number of mobile users in January 2016 declined by 1.1% from January 2015, as the number of mobile phone users fell from 95.2 million users in January 2015 to 94.1 million users in January 2016.
The report also revealed a significant decline in the number of internet users during January 2016, as the number of internet users fell from 33.8 million users in December 2015 to 26.2 million users in January 2016.
