CAIRO: Egyptian mobile phone service operator MobiNil said on Monday it would defer making a decision on whether to apply for a license for higher-bandwidth 3G technology for a year because conditions were unattractive . At this point the board has elected not to pursue such an endeavor, Chief Executive Alex Shalaby told analysts in a conference call to discuss the firm s first-half results. The conditions that are currently on the table are extremely unattractive, he added. It is just a very, very difficult equation to make. But he said MobiNil, which is majority-owned by regional operator Orascom Telecom, would reconsider its decision in 12 months. Egypt s two existing mobile operators are MobiNil and Vodafone Egypt, and would have to pay approximately $580 million (LE 3.3 billion) for 3G licenses because the price for the license is linked to the unexpectedly high winning bid for the country s third mobile phone operator. The third mobile licence was sold at auction this month to Etisalat of the United Arab Emirates for $2.9 billion (LE 16.7 billion). The resulting price that the existing operators would have to pay for 3G prompted Egyptian investment bank EFG-Hermes to lower its long-term fair value share price estimates for the two companies to LE 200 for MobiNil and LE 110 pounds for Vodafone. Shares in MobiNil, which reported first-half net income of LE 657 million on Thursday, closed trading on Monday at LE 140.98. MobiNil rival Vodafone has said it is evaluating whether to acquire a 3G license, and was discussing the terms with Egyptian regulators. Reuters
