CAIRO: Egyptian mobile telecoms firm Mobinil said yesterday it might reject the government’s offer of a landline services licence, aimed at boosting competition in the telecoms market, unless it is allowed to build its own fixed-line infrastructure.
The government approved in September a new unified licensing which would allow the state fixed-lined monopoly Telecom Egypt (TE) to enter the mobile market while in return allowing the three mobile network operators to enter the landline market.
Mobinil, which is 93.92 percent-owned by France’s Orange and five percent by Vimpelcom, has already said it might opt out of the fixed-line licence, because of the price and uncertain terms.
“The current terms of the fixed licence are not satisfactory,” Mobinil’s chief executive Yves Gauthier said yesterday.
“We are not saying we want to build a fixed network but we need to have the choice, because if TE has the right to build their mobile network we should have the possibility to build, or not build, our own network.”
TE wants to launch a mobile service to rival Vodafone Egypt , Mobinil and Etisalat Egypt.
It has already agreed to pay 2.5bn Egyptian pounds ($350m) for a licence to enter the mobile market, while mobile providers are expected to pay 100m pounds to access TE’s fixed-line network.
However, TE said earlier this month it had no interest in building its own mobile infrastructure until Egypt introduces licensing for a 4G mobile broadband service in several years time.
Reuters
