Egypt - Key Statistics, Regulatory and Fixed-Line Telecoms Overviews

Synopsis

Egypt has the largest fixed-line market in Africa and the Arab region, with a highly profitable incumbent telco (Telecom Egypt) which was partially privatised through an IPO. A second national fixed-line licence tendered in 2009 received strong interest from international bidders, but the process has been postponed to at least 2013. Instead, two regionally limited triple-play licences for fixed-line voice, high-speed broadband and pay-TV services were issued in 2010. Efforts are underway to roll out next-generation networks, offering converged IP-based voice, data and entertainment services. Egypt is well connected by several international submarine fibre optic cables, a national fibre backbone, and one of Africa’s first Fibre-to-the-Home (FttH) deployments.

Companies covered in this report:

• Telecom Egypt;
• Orascom Telecom;
• Menatel;
• NilePhone.

Table of Contents

• 1. Synopsis
• 2. Key statistics
• 3. Telecommunications market
  • 3.1 Overview of Egypt’s telecom market
• 4. Regulatory environment
  • 4.1 Background
  • 4.2 Creation of a new regulatory framework
  • 4.3 Telecommunications Master Plan
  • 4.4 Legislative reform
  • 4.5 Regulatory authority
    • 4.5.1 National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority
    • 4.5.2 Ministry of Communications & Information Technology
  • 4.6 Telecom sector liberalisation in Egypt
    • 4.6.1 International gateway licences
    • 4.6.2 International submarine cable licence
    • 4.6.3 Second fixed-line licence
    • 4.6.4 Triple-play licences
    • 4.6.5 Fourth mobile licence
  • 4.7 Privatisation of Telecom Egypt
  • 4.8 Interconnection
  • 4.9 Tariffs
• 5. Fixed network operators in Egypt
  • 5.1 Telecom Egypt
    • 5.1.1 Wholesale
  • 5.2 Orascom Telecom
• 6. Telecommunications infrastructure
  • 6.1 National telecom network
  • 6.2 Fixed-line statistics
  • 6.3 Public payphones
  • 6.4 Wireless local loop (WLL)
  • 6.5 Next Generation Networks (NGN)
  • 6.6 FttH
  • 6.7 International infrastructure
    • 6.7.1 Terrestrial
    • 6.7.2 Submarine fibre
    • 6.7.3 Satellite
• 7. Fixed voice market
  • 7.1 National and international call traffic
• 8. Related reports

• Table 1 – Country statistics – 2012
• Table 2 – Fixed-line network statistics – 2012
• Table 3 – Internet provider statistics – 2012
• Table 4 – Internet user statistics – 2011
• Table 5 – Broadband statistics – 2011
• Table 6 – Mobile statistics – 2012
• Table 7 – National telecommunications authorities
• Table 8 – Telecom Egypt key performance indicators – 2003 - 2011
• Table 9 – Fixed lines in service and teledensity – 1995 - 2012
• Table 10 – Public payphones by operator – 2002 - 2009

• Chart 1 – Fixed lines in service and teledensity – 2000 - 2012

• Exhibit 1 – Major licences issued in Egypt – 2012