The three current mobile network operators aren’t buying that 4G licenses will be auctioned in July, officials from all three telecoms tell Al Borsa. These sources have voiced complaints that the same issues that plagued the failed launch of a unified operator license, which was heavily pushed for by former ICT Minister Atef Helmy in 2013, would return to haunt the 4G rollout. These include Telecom Egypt (TE)’s stalled exit from Vodafone Egypt, licenses to handle international calls independent of TE, and the government’s failure to allow mobile network operators to diversify into fixed-line connections. Cabinet approved issuing unified licenses in 2014, but the plans were scrapped at the first phase, which would have allowed TE to use all three operators’ networks to launch its own service. Driving operators’ skepticism is the belief that the 4G license framework is identical to the one governing the defunct unified license. 4G is clearly the future, how big is the market opportunity today? CIT Minister Yasser Al Qady estimates that just 3% of the phones in the domestic market are 4G-ready.