The mobile market has lost nearly 11,000 clients in June, compared to May, according to a report by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. The report noted that the number of mobile users declined from 100.42 million in May to 100.31 million in June—a drop of 0.11%.
Moreover, the report also noted that the number of internet users in Egypt increased to 35.55 million users, up by 71,000 from 34.84 million in May.
The number of mobile internet users increased dramatically in June, with the number of users increasing from 26.8 million in May to 27.37 million users in June—marking a growth of 19.6%.
Meanwhile, the number of USB modem internet users increased by 0.6% to reach 3.41 million in June, up from 3.36 million in May. According to the report, the number of ADSL users also increased by 2.1% to reach 4.8 million in June, up from 4.7 million in May.
The telecommunications service prices declined slightly during the first quarter of this year compared to the fourth quarter of last year, as the average cost of internet service fell from $3.80 to $2.80 in the first quarter this year, while the mobile service cost declined from $1.7 in the fourth quarter of 2016 to $1.2 in the first quarter this year. In addition, the landline service cost dropped from $1.2 to $0.9 in the first quarter in 2017.
The report also indicated that the prices of communication services did not change in the first quarter of this year in Egyptian pounds, explaining that the decline in cost is due to the depreciation of the pound to the dollar thanks to the Central Bank of Egypt’s (CBE) policy to float the Egyptian pound in November 2016, which leads to changing the prices up and down when accounted for costs in dollars compared to previous quarters.
Finally, the value-added tax was imposed at the end of September 2016 to the price, which also contributed to changing the prices compared.
