Two international calling operator's licenses will be offered by the National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (NTRA) by the end of February, a Prime Minister's Office statement issued last Sunday said. The statement represents the highest level of its kind and comes after a year of delays to the issuance of the licenses. Government officials and telecom analysts have maintained the delays have been cause by the NTRA's insistance on waiting for "favorable market conditions and allowing 80 percent-owned Telecom Egypt, the lone service provider, more time to prepare for the expected loss in revenue. TE collected LE 2.3 billion in international calling revenues, or 27 percent of total revenues of LE 8.5 billion in 2005. Its monopoly on providing the service legally expired in December of that year. The Prime Minister's statement reaffirms comments made earlier in December by NTRA Chairman Amr Badawi and Minister of Communication Tarek Kamel about the planned timing of the offering. The statement adds the government is now considering whether it will put up the licenses for auction as it did with the third mobile license, or hold closed-door negotiations with Mobinil and Etisalat Egypt, both of whom have expressed interest. Although Vodafone had expressed strong interest earlier in the year, the company's recent signing of a strategic partnership agreement with Telecom Egypt gives it access to TE's international calling infrastructure and revenue and eliminates it as a competitor for an additional license. No fee amount has been set yet by the NTRA.
