Egypt's state-owned landline telecom monopoly Telecom Egypt has appointed Waleed Gad its new chairman, the company said in a statement on Monday. Gad was appointed to the company's board of directors in 2012 and has worked in information technology for 48 years and has held various management positions at Fujitsu Services, according to Telecom Egypt's website. The company's former chairman, Mohamed Salem, who was appointed only last May, resigned on Saturday shortly after a new government was sworn in by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. He said he had faced many stumbling blocks and difficulties in trying to improve the company's performance. Egypt owns an 80 percent stake in the company, which is facing increasing competition from rivals in the lucrative mobile sector. The company has been trying to acquire a unified license that would allow it to enter the mobile sector, but this has been repeatedly delayed due to disagreements between the government and the three existing mobile carriers, Mobinil, Etisalat and Vodafone Egypt. Telecom Egypt, which has a 45 percent stake in Vodafone Egypt, agreed last year to pay 2.5 billion Egyptian pounds ($327.65 million) for the unified licence. http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/142018.aspx
