As the 4G official launched in Egypt on Thursday, the National Telecom Regulatory Authority (NTRA) announced a new increase in the price of prepaid cards.
The NTRA attributed the increase to demands from operators, while they refuted these claims. They argued that the proposed price adjustment was rejected by the NTRA, adding that they refuse the new tariff imposed by the authority.
An official in a mobile company said that the NTRA received a request from mobile companies to offer promotional offers to bear the value of increasing the price of prepaid cards on behalf of the customer, while agreeing to the offer to the new company “We”, which will negatively affect the form of competition in the market.
The source added that the increase applied by the NTRA is not what the companies requested. The total increase requested by the company represented by the aforementioned official is EGP, added to the value of prepaid cards, of which 140 piastres and 60 piastres will be added as a customer’s credit.
Despite so, the NTRA implemented the change. Some companies, however, have notified the authority of their rejection of the price adjustment.
The NTRA has devalued the price of prepaid cards by 30%. For example, the EGP 5 card for EGP 5 instead of EGP 5.5, and the customer gets EGP 3.5 instead of EGP 5.20 worth of credit. The EGP 10 card price is EGP 10 instead of EGP 11, and the customer gets a balance of EGP 7 instead of EGP 10.40. The price of an EGP 15 card is EGP 15 instead of EGP 16.5, and the customer gets EGP 10.5 instead of EGP 15.60.
The price of an EGP 25 card is EGP 25 instead of EGP 27.5, and the customer gets a balance of EGP 17.5 instead of EGP 26. As for the price of the EGP 50 card, it is at EGP 50 instead of EGP 55, and gives the customer EGP 35 worth of credit instead of EGP 52. The price of an EGP 100 card is EGP 100 instead of EGP 110, and the customer gets EGP 70 instead of EGP 104 worth of credit. The price of a card of EGP 200 is for EGP 200 instead of EGP 220 and gives the customer a balance of EGP140 instead of EGP 208. The customer receives 70% of the value of any means of adding credit.
