Telecom Egypt (TE) recently announced that it will finalize payment of the 1.975 billion Egyptian pound ($425 million) fee for licensing Egypt's third mobile operator without credit assistance, reported Al-Alam Al-Youm .
TE, the state landline telephone monopoly, invited bids from multinational companies to build Egypt's third GSM cellular-telephone network this past February. In a bid to improve TE's chances of finding a strategic investor who would help launch the third mobile network, the company tried to avoid paying for the operator's license. It has however recently been obliged by the national regulatory authority to pay these fees as well as separate annual channel fees.
TE has said it will choose a foreign company in October to develop the network and mobile services will begin in December 2002. The two mobile phone companies currently operating in Egypt are the Egyptian Company for Mobile Services, (ECMS) or MobiNil and Misrfone, or Click GSM. — (menareport.com)
© 2002 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
