The national telecommunications regulator has finalised the main framework for regional Internet licences in Egypt, with licences to be granted to two companies in each governorate, excluding Greater Cairo, according to a senior official.
Mustafa Abdul Wahid, acting executive president of the National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (NTRA), told Daily News Egypt the authority is currently working on the general scheme from a technical viewpoint, with a view to submitting it for approval in the future.
The aim of the new system for regional licences is to improve the quality of Internet services, while helping to spread coverage across the country, said Abdul Wahid.
As Internet use continues to grow in Egypt, the NTRA is seeking to improve the management of which companies have licences in which areas. Major companies, such as TE Data, LinkDSL, Vodafone and Etisalat, are battling for customers across various technological platforms.
By the end of the second quarter of 2015, TE Data had acquired 69.7% of the Internet market, compared to 67.3% in the first quarter of the year. It had 3.5 million ADSL subscribers by the end of June, compared to 3.26 million by the end of March, an increase of 7.5%. The net number of new ADSL subscribers in the market during the second quarter of the year was 245,000.
The market share of LinkDSL declined to 19.1% by the end of June, compared to 21.2% in March. It had 670,000 subscribers by the end of the second quarter, compared to 694,000 by the end of the first quarter of 2015, a decline of 3.4%.
Vodafone Data, meanwhile, added only 1,000 subscribers over three months, with a total of 225,000 subscribers by the end of June. The company’s market share dropped to 6.5%.
The market share of Etisalat Internet subscriptions rose to 4.7% by the end of the second quarter of 2015, giving it a total of 165,000 subscribers, compared to 144,000 in the end of March.
