The three mobile operators in Egypt -Vodafone, Orange, and Etisalat- are competing to launch the 4G services -after obtaining the licences- during Cairo ICT 2016 that would take place on November 27. An official from Vodafone Egypt said that the company will work on the redistribution of its frequencies, so as to provide high-quality 4G services, adding that Vodafone owns the highest number of frequencies in Egypt, estimated at 42.5 MHz. The official said that the company has invested about EGP 9bn during the last two years to develop its network, so the company is technically ready to launch 4G services. He pointed out that they would soon announce the launch of the service. Hamdy El-Laithy, CEO of Linatel Telecommunications, said that the three mobile operators have enough experience to satisfactorily provide 4G services to their customers. He added that the three companies are technically prepared to provide the new service within a month or during the Cairo ICT 2016 exhibition. El-Laithy said that the coming days will witness a competition between the three mobile operators in order to launch the 4G services, as each company will do its best to be the first company to launch them in Egypt. He believes that Telecom Egypt needs at least six months to launch 4G services, because it needs to build its own mobile network, expecting that it will begin in some cities with high density to achieve economic feasibility. According to El-Laithy, Telecom Egypt needs to sign some trade agreements with mobile phone operators because it still depends on their networks to provide its voice services. Source: Daily News Egypt
