Orange Egypt CEO warns of awarding fourth mobile licence

Orange CEO Yves Gauthier warned on Tuesday that a fourth mobile operator in Egypt could cause the country's telecom market to shrink and harm investment.

Gauthier is concerned about the prospect of a mobile operator licence being awarded to Telecom Egypt, he told Ahram Online at a launch event in Cairo of Orange Egypt, formerly Mobinil.

“I hope that the government will evaluate the impact of granting a fourth licence, because all countries where there are four operators see their market contract due to pricing wars, with negative effects on investments,” said Gauthier, citing France, where Orange is in talks with Bouygues Telecom to buy it out.

Egypt, a country of 90 million where the mobile phone penetration rate exceeds 100 percent, has for years delayed a plan to award its only fixed line operator, majority state-owned Telecom Egypt (TE), a licence to become Egypt’s fourth mobile operator, as well as its fourth Internet Service Provider.