|
|
 |
|
Viewing report
|
|
|
|
Egypt Telecommunications Report Q1 2011
Business Monitor International, Jan 2011, Pages: 79
Egypt Telecommunications Report provides industry professionals and strategists, corporate analysts, telecommunication associations, government departments and regulatory bodies with independent forecasts and competitive intelligence on Egypt's telecommunications industry.
BMI’s Q111 update on Egypt’s telecommunications market contains new operational and financial data published by the leading network operators and the country’s telecoms regulator. Since our last update, new data have been published by both Mobinil (jointly owned by France’s Orange and Egypt’s Orascom Telecom), and Vodafone Egypt (part of the UK’s Vodafone Group) that depict the size of their respective mobile businesses at the end of September 2010.
Based on the available information, BMI calculates that there are a total of 63.93mn Egyptian mobile subscribers at the end of September 2010. The mobile market grew by 14.5% in the first nine months of 2010. This was comparable to a 6.5% increase in the first six months of 2010. The robust growth in the mobile market during 9M10 relates to the introduction of competitively-priced tariffs taking advantage of the Ramadan religious holiday period, which saw Mobinil offering tailored price plans including free minutes to new subscribers. This also helped operators offset some of the slowdown in growth experienced in the previous quarter with the introduction of compulsory SIM registration in May 2010.
Vodafone Egypt led the mobile market in terms of subscriber numbers for the first time in Q310. The operator acquired 2.975mn net additions in the quarter, bringing its total to 28.766mn subscribers and representing a market share of 45%. The strength in growth of its customer base related in part to a drive in the number of mobile internet subscribers. As for Mobinil, the operator managed to acquire 2.253mn new subscribers with its market share at 44.4%. However, only Etisalat reported a decline in subscribers, which we estimate was representative of a net loss of 285,100 in the quarter. Its market share fell below 11% for the first time since September 2009.
BMI has extended and revised its forecasts for the development of the Egyptian mobile market. We expect that average annual growth will be closer to 8.2%, rather than the 10.4% predicted in our previous update. As a result, mobile penetration rates will be expected to reach 100% by the end of 2012 rather than 2013. Despite the maturity of the market, BMI expects that future mobile growth will be supported by operators tapping into new growth markets, particularly rural markets. That said, with prepaid subscribers dominant in the market at around 96% of the total, this has negatively impacted blended ARPUs.
In view of this, operators are also pushing for stronger postpaid growth. There is reason to believe that 3G service uptake is steadily occurring as mobile operators look to acquire new value-added services (VAS). Future 3G/postpaid growth would benefit greatly from the increased penetration of smartphone handsets. Unfortunately, the Egyptian government has banned any phones that have Global Positioning System (GPS) facilities, and until this is lifted, it could continue to be an obstacle to future growth.
Product samples
A sample for this product is available. Please Login/Register to download this sample.
|
|
|
|
