Telecom Egypt’s board has tentatively approved buying a 4G license ahead of the 7 August deadline to submit bids, according to a regulatory filing on Sunday. A study of the 4G license plan will be presented to the investment committee, the statement read. “Telecom Egypt will provide the service within a year of obtaining the licence due to its need for experts to run mobile services, prepare networks and work on agreements,” an unnamed company official told Reuters. The CIT Ministry announced last week that it had no plans to license a fifth mobile network operator if the three existing operators and Telecom Egypt acquire integrated telecom and 4G licenses. Banking sources said Telecom Egypt was in talks for an EGP 5 bn loan to acquire the license, while the NTRA said last week it was looking to charge the company an additional 1% fee for the license.

Horse trading with other MNOs continues: As for other MNOs, the NTRA had apparently put its foot down during its talks with them on the 4G license framework after many operators protested the pricing of the licenses, stating that it will not accept any “challenges to its authority”. However, it wasn’t above extending an olive branch on other points and approved allowing the companies rights to expand the infrastructure for their fixed line connections independently of TE, Al Borsa reports. The operators had suggested that NTRA allow them to use the infrastructure of their own internet service providers to run fixed landline connections and hold the right to build new telecom infrastructure independent from TE, said an NTRA source.