Egypt Leans on Mobile to Drive Development; Outlines LTE Goals

Mobile technology is key to helping Egypt achieve its aims to develop its digital economy, according to Atef Helmy, the country’s minister of Communications and Information Technology.

The minister told delegates in Dubai that the country needs to use the ”power of mobile” to deliver on the government’s digital economy strategy aimed at enabling Egypt “to go forward to achieve prosperity, freedom and social equity”.

“We have a responsibility to use the power of ICT to achieve this,” Helmy noted.

In order to provide the mobile services needed, he said the government and mobile players need to ensure the flexible and innovative use of spectrum, as well as exploit the digital dividend and introduce LTE across the country.

To that end Helmy outlined the country’s goal to provide LTE coverage to 90 per cent of the country’s population by 2020, with 14 million citizens (15 per cent of the population) subscribed to mobile broadband services. That builds on a 2016 goal of 98 per cent of the population having 3G coverage and 8 million citizens with mobile broadband access.

According to GSMA Intelligence, 30 per cent of Egypt’s mobile connections are via 3G technology today, while the country is yet to launch LTE services.

Helmy made it clear that cooperation between governments, operators, multinationals and NGOs will be essential if the country is to achieve its aims for a digital economy.

Source: Mobile World Drive