There was a slight decline in telecommunication services during the first quarter (Q1) of this year compared to Q4 of the previous year. Thus, the average cost for internet services decreased to $3.80 in Q4 2016 to reach $2.8 in Q1 2017. In addition, mobile services fell from $1.7 in Q4 2016 to $1.2 in Q1 2017, while the cost of landline telephone service fell from $1.2 in the Q4 2016 to $0.90 in Q1 2017.
According to the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) report, there weren’t any decreases in any of the telecommunication services by the Egyptian pound during Q1 2017, but mainly in the prices during the last two quarters compared to the previous quarters.
The current decline came due to the Central Bank of Egypt’s (CBE) November 2016 decision to liberalise foreign exchange rates, which eventually led to changes and differences in the telecommunications services denominated in dollars from the previous quarters.
In addition to that, the value-added tax (VAT) was added, imposed by the end of September 2016, which also contributed to the change in the prices compared to previous quarters.
According to the MCIT report, the cost of mobile phone usage is calculated according to the prepaid rate for every 30 calls per month spread over the same mobile network, competing mobile networks, land networks during peak hours, peak times and weekends, as well as 100 text messages.
On the other hand, the report revealed that the gross domestic product (GDP) of the telecommunications sector grew by 11.4% during the first quarter of this year compared to the same period of 2016. The GDP of the sector reached EGP 15.3bn, compared to EGP 13.8bn for the comparative period of 2016, an increase of EGP1.5bn.
The contribution of the Communication and IT (CIT) sector in the country’s GDP reached 3.3% during Q1 2017, compared to 3.12.8% during the same period of 2016.
