Egypt will be establish a national entity for telecommunications at a value of LE3.8bn, according to the Communications and Information Technology Ministry (MCIT).
"The Egyptian government's share of the entity will be 60% — represented by the Defense Ministry, MCIT, Transportation Ministry, Finance Ministry, and Electricity Ministry," an official source in the ministry said on Thursday .
The source continued that the three mobile network operators (MNOs) will have a share of 11.5 percent each while Telecom Egypt’s (ETEL) share will be equal to 5.5 percent.
ETEL submitted a request to increase its share to 10 percent, which is still being negotiated by the government, the source explained.
Meanwhile, MCIT rejected a request by the MNOs to participate in the project management that will be exclusive for sovereign bodies only, the source said.
The number of mobile phone subscribers fell by millions for the first time in Egypt ever in August, according to the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA). The total number of mobile phone subscribers was down by nearly 1.9 million to 95.5 million, compared to 97.4 million in July 2014.
This brought the prevalence rate in the country to 114.5 percent, compared to nearly 120 percent a year earlier.
NTRA has announced recently the cancellation of more than 5.5 million mobile lines that belonged to anonymous subscribers due to rising security concerns following the ouster of President Mohamed Morsy in July 2013.
