Middle East & North Africa Telecommunications

Cairo: The Egyptian mobile phone market should grow to 40 million subscribers in three years and etisalat wants to take 10 million, chief executive Mohammad Hassan Omran said yesterday. etisalat bought Egypt’s third mobile licence for $2.9 billion in July and plans to start operations in February, competing with Mobinil and Vodafone Egypt, which have about 16 million customers between them. Omran said in a breakfast speech that a mobile penetration rate of 50 per cent was possible in Egypt within three years. By that time Egypt will have close to 80 million people. “In three years for us to reach 10 million, I think is very feasible and can be done,” he added.