Kuwaiti telco Zain recently expressed interest in local 4G license
China Telecom and Saudi Telecom have shown interest in acquiring a “4G” license to start operations in Egypt, international press reported citing unnamed government sources.
However, Egyptian officials said neither company had made any formal offer to acquire the licenses. China Telecom is China’s third-largest mobile carrier, while Saudi Telecom is the largest phone operator in Saudi Arabia.
The Egyptian authorities previously said 4G licenses would be offered to new companies only if the existing mobile operators in the country, namely Orange Egypt, Vodafone Egypt and Etisalat, fail to show interest in acquiring a license. Kuwaiti telecom firm Zain had previously expressed interest in entering Egypt’s 4G market.
According to the report, the interest from telcos with no operations in the African country could now put pressure on the existing operators to accept the 4G license terms before the first week of August deadline set by the government. Conditions imposed by the local authorities stipulate interested companies will have to pay half of the license fee in U.S. dollars.
Egypt currently has about 95 million mobile subscribers, according to the communications ministry.
China Telecom implements carrier aggregation for LTE services
China Telecom said it has implemented a carrier aggregation upgrade on its LTE network, combining frequencies in the 2100 MHz and 1800 MHz bands, Chinese press reported.
The Asian telco also confirmed it is now looking at combining either band with spectrum in the 800 MHz band, as well as utilizing tri-band carrier aggregation.
China Telecom plans to carry out field trials of voice-over-LTE and voice-over-Wi-Fi service later this year, with plans to launch commercial services next year.
The operator ended June with 90.1 million LTE subscribers, having posted 5.55 million net customer additions during the month.
The telco’s overall mobile subscriber base reached nearly 207 million at the end of the second quarter of the year.
