Cairo - Mubasher: Further negotiations will be in favor of all parties involved in the issue of the 4G license, said a recent note published by Pharos Research.
Earlier, Egypt's three mobile operators officially rejected the 4G license terms.
Pharos believes that the collective rejection was expected especially after the mobile operators previously stated their objections to the hefty license fee demanded by the NTRA, more importantly the payment terms which require the operators to submit 50% of the fee in US Dollars and pay the entire amount upfront.
In addition, operators expressed concerns over the range of frequencies offered, which are much lower compared to international standards and consequently would not enable them to offer proper 4G services.
The research house expects further negotiations to take place, since it is in favor of all parties involved.
On one hand, maintaining a cooperative environment with the mobile operators is key for the successful launch of ETEL’s mobile service offering due to initial infrastructure sharing requirements, since disputes would set limitations to launching the service pre-establishing their own infrastructure.
On the other hand, it is in the MNOs’ favor that NTRA would not offer the license to an international player, which would further dilute their market shares and profitability.
Kuwaiti mobile operator Zain, China Telecom, Saudi Telecom and Lebara KSA have expressed an interest in acquiring Egyptian 4G licenses.
