Delay for Etisalat's Egypt operation

UAE operator Etisalat has delayed the launch of its mobile operation in Egypt until May, rather than February as previously planned, it told IT Weekly this week.

A spokesperson for the firm admitted to IT Weekly there had been "a bit of a delay", but said it was on track to meet the May 21 deadline - the end of the grace period in its contract.

The spokesperson said the delay was due to the need to reach an agreement with the two existing Egyptian mobile operators Vodafone Egypt and Mobinil over tariff levels and cell site locations.

"We just need to finalise the problem regarding our network - a deal between us and other networks on the tariffs. This is almost finished now," he said.

Etisalat will not provide full coverage at the launch of its operations, but plans to cover most of Egypt within one year, the spokesperson added.

The UAE operator, which is being challenged on its home turf by the launch of mobile service provider du, paid US$2.9 billion to secure Egypt's third GSM licence in July last year.

Etisalat Egypt CEO Saleh Al Abdouli has previously said the telco expects to have captured ten million mobile subscribers by 2010, representing a 25% share of the market.