NTRA, Orange, Vodafone and Etisalat reach deal

Egypt's National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA) and mobile operators Orange Egypt, Vodafone Egypt, and Etisalat Misr signed a settlement agreement on 9 September 2019. The agreement was inked by Mustafa Abdel Wahed (pictured), NTRA Executive Chairman, Yasser Shaker, CEO of Orange Egypt, Alexander Froman, CEO of Vodafone Egypt and Hazem Metwally, CEO of Etisalat Misr.

They want to settle the legal battles between telecom operators over interconnection tariffs that have persisted for the past ten years. The latest battle, between Vodafone Egypt and Etisalat Misr, which began in 2016 before the Cairo Regional Arbitration Centre for International Trade, ended last January with Vodafone Egypt being ordered to pay compensation of EGP750 million ($41,751,179) to the subsidiary of the Emirati telecoms group for violating the regulator's decision, fixing the financial compensation payable by each party to the other for any service unit rendered.