National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (NTRA) postponed launching the unified license until September to look into giving mobile operators new guarantees. An official government official told Alborsa newspaper that the NTRA has decided to launch the unified license in September instead of the original launch date in July and will hold meetings in the next period with all companies to reach an acceptable final version for all parties. He added that mobile operators requested in its proposals which was filed 2 weeks ago the issuance of international gateway for communications for a new price during this year in parallel with the launch of Telecom Egypt (ETEL) mobile service as a guarantee of competitiveness. The NTRA is studying the proposed prices from mobile operators to get the international gateway. The NTRA set the price at LE 1.5 billion and 1.8 billion for Mobinil (EMOB) and Vodafone Egypt respectively in addition to receiving 6% of the company's revenues. Meanwhile, the negotiations of local roaming for Telecom Egypt (ETEL) has been complicated after a dispute regarding the rental prices of the frequencies and mobile stations occurred. The mobile operators asked for a 10% annual increase in the rental prices which was justified by increase in the prices of suppliers, the annual investments in the local market and development of the stations. Source: AlBorsa Newspaper & Arab Finance
