4G mobile networks to be available in Egypt ‘in days’: minister

The fourth generation of the wireless mobile telecommunications (4G) service will be available in Egypt in days, Egyptian Minister of Communications Yasser el-Qady announced Monday.

Egypt has added billions of Egyptian pounds to the state budget through the sale of 4G and landline licences, but the country is one of only six in the world that does not yet have a functioning 4G network.

Telecom Egypt, Vodafone Egypt, Orange Egypt, and Etisalat Misr obtained licences to provide fourth generation services earlier in mid-October in 2016. The total value of the licenses paid by the four companies stand at $2.149 billion, 50 percent of which was paid in Egyptian pounds, and the rest in US dollars.

The Egyptian communications sector has registered a 11.2 percent growth rate during the first quarter of the current financial year, el-Qady said during a press conference in Cairo.