The National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA) in a meeting headed by Minister of Communications and Information Technology Yasser ElKady decided to amend the conditions for obtaining 4G licenses—only to pen more difficult conditions, ignoring the three mobile operators’ demands.
The new conditions kept the 50% payment in US dollars, which was one of the reasons why the three mobile operators did not move towards obtaining the license in September. Even more, the NTRA said that companies that pay the full amount in US dollars will be given priority to obtain more frequency bands.
Also during the meeting, the NTRA decided to grant the license for the international communications gateway to companies that would pay for the license fully in US dollars.
In September, the three mobile operators, Vodafone, Orange, and Etisalat, decided to disregard the deadline set for obtaining the 4G license, protesting against some of the conditions put forward. However, on Thursday Orange said that the company filed an official request to NTRA seeking the renegotiation of 4G license conditions.
