Telecom Egypt: "Telecom market in Egypt is young, growing and very attractive"

Could you begin by giving us a general introduction to the telecoms sector in Egypt?

The Egyptian telecoms market is very large and very young. It is a growing market. We have a population of about 90 million Egyptians, two thirds of whom are below the age of 25 and a third of whom are below the age of 15. There are about 18 million homes and we are adding 500,000 new homes every year. Therefore the market is growing and the fact that we are living on just about 5% of our land means that there is plenty of opportunities for expansion. This is the canvas on which we weave. We have a great opportunity to grow alongside this very young and large market.

A few days ago, the school year started once more and the Egyptian schools registered 18 million students. People mean wealth and we certainly have a lot of people in Egypt which is a big part of our opportunity.

This market generated more than 35 billion Egyptian pounds last year; 85% of which is in mobile and 15% is in fixed telecoms. Telecom Egypt aspires to lead the way in mobile broadband and higher speed fixed and mobile data services in this growing, fledgling market.

What challenges does the market in general face?