Egypt: bidding deadline for fixed line licence postponed

Egypt’s regulator has announced it is delaying for the second time the bid submission deadline for a second nationwide fixed-line licence, according to report this week from Reuters.

“The current disturbances witnessed by global markets have weighed in favour of the decision to postpone,” said the National Telecom Regulatory Authority (NTRA), in the report.

The deadline for the submission of bids was originally 19 June, however Egypt pushed it back to 29 July, claiming it needed more time for discussions on interconnection agreements between the country’s fixed and mobile players.

The NTRA said Monday that it is further postponing the deadline until 18 September, a move it claims will give it enough time to “lay the foundations” for a fixed-to-mobile interconnectivity agreement.

Incumbent operator Telecom Egypt is the currently the country’s only fixed-line operator, a monopoly that is due to end with the sale of the second licence.

Over the last year the telco has seen a drop in voice revenue, which it attributes to aggressive pricing campaigns by Egypt’s mobile operators.

At the end of the first quarter Telecom Egypt reported total voice revenues of 709 million Egyptian pounds (US$134 million), down from EGP837 million a year earlier.

And market pressure is set to increase with the introduction of a new fixed-line player.

The NTRA said that a number of companies have expressed an interest in entering the Egyptian market by paying $10,000 for the handbook that sets out the conditions and specifications for the licence.

The regulator lists France Telecom, Etisalat, and Orascom as having bought the booklet, as well as equipment vendors Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent.

Source: Total Telecom