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Egypt Telecommunications Report Q3 2009Product Type: Market Research ReportPublished by: Business Monitor International Published: July 2009 Product Code: R302-7483 Description This latest update of BMI’s Egypt Telecommunications report has seen a renewed focus on the fixed-lineand broadband markets, with the addition of more detail and a SWOT analysis of the sectors, as well as aconvenient tabular breakdown of recent developments affecting these business areas. After the expansionof the mobile section in the last update, this has been only partially updated this quarter. The expandedreport will receive a full update with the next issue.Overall, Egypt has a fairly healthy fixed-line market. The penetration rate at the end of 2008 was 14.9%,which is not bad in the context of developing countries’ fixed-line markets. The fixed-line segment hasbeen resisting the pressure from mobile substitution and has show a pattern of gentle growth over the pastfew years. Because of this, and the fact that new data available to BMI suggest that demand for new linesis still fairly healthy, BMI has decided to revise the fixed-line forecast for Egypt, and we now believe thatthe market will hold out against the trend of decline that has plagued so many fixed-line markets, at leastfor a while longer. Despite these positives, the fixed-line market lacks competition, and BMI regrets the regulator’s decisionto indefinitely postpone the auction of a new fixed-line licence. The market could still benefit a great dealif it was at least opened up to the wholesale market, allowing alternative operators to resell TelecomEgypt’s services. This is already the case with internet and data services. Uptake of broadband has been growing steadily, though the high cost of both computers and broadbandsubscriptions is still a prohibitive factor for many individuals and families. Broadband connection sharingthrough Wi-Fi modems is reportedly common among neighbours who do subscribe, with two, three oreven more households sharing the monthly bill. As mentioned above, there is some competition in thebroadband market, with many resellers and some alternative technologies getting a look in. TelecomEgypt has been increasing its retail market share, however, which would suggest that competition is notfunctioning very effectively. Meanwhile, BMI continues to give a higher estimate of the size of the mobile market than the regulator.This is because we estimate the size of third-ranked operator Etisalat’s subscriber base from the limitedinformation that the operator itself provides, which is significantly higher than the figures recorded by theregulator. Growth is inevitably slowing as Egypt’s mobile penetration moves closer to 100%. At the endof 2008, we believe that penetration was just under 57%, and we expect it to reach 73% by the end of2009. Table of Contents
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