Cairo: Egypt's three mobile phone providers, Vodafone, Etisalat, and Orange (OREG) mull requesting a 15% increase in pricing of services from the National Telecom Regulatory Authority, as operation costs of their networks surged after the government decided lately to cut energy subsidies.

An official at one of Egypt's mobile phone operators said that rising operation and maintenance costs make mobile providers, already reeling from lower revenues and profits, less capable at providing new and high-quality services to clients.

" Should NTRA approve request due to be submitted by mobile operators to NTRA, they will provide free-of-charge minutes of calls and data, as the fair price of a EGP10 recharge must be EGP13 up from EGP11 now," Al-Mal newspaper quoted the informed source as saying.
Losses incurred by Vodafone and Orange and Etisalet are attributed to flotation taken by Egypt in November 2016, as Etisalet's profits were cut by 53% when calculated in UAE's Dirhams.

Vodafone International's revenues plunged by EGP2.6bn to EGP5.2bn in the first half of the fiscal year 2016/2017 down from EGP7.8bn in the first half of the same period.

Orange's losses reached EGP300.6mn in the first quarter of this year up from EGP12.34mn in the same period of 2016. Its consolidated profits of EGP9.03bn up from EGP8.78bn turned into losses owing to currency differences.

Etisalet Misr's revenues rose by 5%, as its net profits soared by 170% to EGP515mn up from EGP190mn in the first quarter of 2016.

Source: Al-Mal Newspaper