The Middle East and Africa's largest provider of fixed telephone-lines services Telecom Egypt (TE) signed an agreement Tuesday with the Arab Company for Projects and Urban Development, a subsidiary of Talaat Moustafa Group Holding (TMG), for the former to supply the latter's "Madinaty" project with the latest communication technology – namely fiber-optics. "This agreement with TMG reflects the confidence that major organisations and corporations continue to have in TE's ability to provide the latest and most powerful telecommunications services, all with the latest technologies, at a large scale and to the highest international standards," said Mohammed El-Nawawy, managing director and chief executive officer of TE. El-Nawawy mentioned that TE is extensively experienced in that field as it has conducted similar projects based on the same technology in the past year. TE's managing director added that the Madinaty project's network "will serve to further enhance TE's position as one of the pioneers in the implementation and construction of next generation network for news cities that, importantly, enable end-users to get higher internet speeds of up to 10 GB/s." TMG's vice president, Gamal Al Gendy, stated that the agreement will ultimately accommodate 600,000 residents in 120,000 housing units. The project will be implemented over a number of stages that will assist in building a network allowing voice and data service along with entertainment, advertising and security applications. TE announced that services and applications offered will include triple play, interactive internet based TV, video conference and high quality voice calls. Earlier this month, Reuters reported that Telecom Egypt sold rights to subsidiary Orascom Telecom Media and Technology Holding (OTMT) for the use of part of its infrastructure. This will enable the subsidiary to launch a submarine cable network.
