Egypt's telecoms industry regulator has approved the final terms for 4G mobile broadband network licences and will send the forms out to licensee companies on Sunday, a senior official at Egypt's Telecommunications Ministry told Reuters.
"The telecom regulator approved the final terms of the 4G licences yesterday," the official said, adding that companies would have until midday on Sept. 22 to accept them.
The official said that while the companies that obtain the licences will be granted additional frequencies there will be no change in the pricing or the condition that 50 percent of the payment must be made in U.S. dollars.
In June the regulator had offered 4G licences to Telecom Egypt and the three companies currently offering mobile services – Orange Egypt , Vodafone Egypt and Etisalat.
The regulator gave the companies until the first week of August to submit responses but only received a response from Telecom Egypt, which gave its final approval on August 7.
A company source said at the time that Telecom Egypt would pay the full amount requested by the regulator, but declined to give the price.
Communications and Information Technology Minister Yasser al-Kadi said in June the government hoped to raise a total of 22.3 billion Egyptian pounds ($2.5 billion) in licence fees.
