Egypt to Boost Internet Efficiency with EGP 5.5 Billion

Amr Talaat, the Egyptian Minister of Communications and Information Technology said that investments worth EGP 30 billion have been pumped over the past two years to raise the efficiency of Internet services, and the plan is being completed with investments of EGP 5.5 billion during the current year.

During a meeting of the Senate Education, Scientific Research, Telecom, IT Committee, Talaat confirmed that these investments contributed to the increase in the average Internet speed in Egypt from 6.5 Mbps in January 2019 to 39.6 Mbps in April 2021, and Telecom Egypt also won the title of Fastest Internet in Egypt, and North Africa.

He added that 13,000 government buildings have been connected to the fiber-optic cable network as part of a plan to link all government buildings across the country to this network, which amount to 31,500 government buildings within 24 months, with investments of EGP 6 billion.

He also indicated the completion of the connection of 2563 secondary schools across the country with optical fiber cables, add that a plan is being implemented to cover main roads and some areas in the governorates with mobile networks with investments of EGP 1 billion.

The minister stated that new frequencies were introduced to mobile companies by offering 80 MHz in the 2,600 MHz frequency band with revenues of $1,170 billion, in addition to establishing the National Center for Quality Control of Communications Services, implementing procedures for governing mobile services and protecting the rights of users of telecommunications services.

Regarding the presidential initiative "A Decent Life", Amr Talaat said that the ministry is working to raise the efficiency of the information infrastructure of the villages of the first phase of the initiative according to three main axes, which are linking villages with optical fiber cables to raise the efficiency of Internet services for one million homes at a cost of about EGP 5.6 billion, and developing 906 post offices and providing them with an automated teller machine at a cost of about EGP 2.1 billion.

He pointed to the efforts of the ministry to enhance Egypt's international leadership in the field of communications and information technology, which culminated in the selection of the new administrative capital to be the Arab digital capital in 2021.

He explained that in terms of the legislative framework, last year witnessed the issuance of the Personal Data Protection Law, as well as the Executive Regulations for the Law to Combat Information Technology Crimes, and cooperation is currently underway with Parliament to complete discussions to issue the Electronic Transactions Law, and the issuance of the Executive Regulations for the Personal Data Protection Law.