According to a report issued by the Information and Decision Support Center (IDSC), a body affiliated with the cabinet, the number of landline telephone subscribers decreased by 20.4% in April compared to the same period last year. The report also said that the number of subscribers was down 1.3% from March of this year. Mohamed Kamal, General Manager of Investor Relations and Internal Reporting at Telecom Egypt, said, "The decrease in the number of subscribers for landline service exerts a very small impact," adding that Telecom Egypt achieved EGP 6.5bn in revenues during the first half of 2014, representing 17% growth. He attributed this increase in revenues to new contracts that have been signed with several banks to extend fibre-optic networks and projects aimed at replacing copper cables with fibre ones. The replacement project is expected to be completed in two years, during which time landline services will be extended to 4m housing units, institutions, and commercial offices, according to Kamal. He explained, "Within the framework of the new project, 1m landlines have been extended and we hope to reach an additional 600,000 by the end of this year." The total number of mobile phone subscribers reached 101.9 million phone lines, up by 8.7% over the same period last year. Subscriptions increased by 0.68% during April. The number of internet users increased to 42.31m during April, with 26.5% annual growth and 0.36% monthly growth. Total international capacity to connect to the Internet during April reached 287 billion pulses per second, with 24.7% annual growth and zero monthly growth. National Telecom Regulatory Authority (NTRA) Head Hesham El-Alayli said that mobile phone service operators cut service to 3.8m mobile lines, of which information was not updated, while 4m lines went out of service and 14m lines were upgraded, according to a press statement made by El-Alayli. This policy, undertaken by mobile phone operators as per Ministry of Communications' instructions, has led to a decrease in the number of mobile phone lines from 101m to 93m.
