E-Finance to supply Telecom Egypt, Orange with 4G-supporting SIM cards

E-Finance, a state-owned company that provides electronic payment services,will participate in bids to supply 4G supporting SIM cards in favour of Orange Egypt and Telecom Egypt, a Source with knowledge in E-Finance said.

The old 3G SIM cards will be replaced by new 4G ones enabling mobile operators to start providing 4G services in the country.

E-Finance is planning to manufacture the 4G SIM cards in its own centre which produces around 4 million of all kinds of electronic smart cards on a monthly basis, the source further told Amwal Al Ghad on Monday.

The company is also carrying out experiments on chips manufacturing for UK-based telecom company, O2, in a bid to boost Egypt’s exports of smart cards.

Ibrahim Sarhan, CEO of E-Finance, stated earlier that the company’s smart card production centre had issued and operated about 25 million cards since its inception in March 2009 including 7.1 million cards for Ministry of Social Solidarity and 6.8 million for the Ministry of Petroleum.

Moreover, the company issued 2.5 million Visa and Master cards for Banque Misr clients, 500,000 visa cards for the National Bank of Egypt’s (NBE) clients in addition to 4 million smart cards for other banks and institutions.