Breakthrough license agreement enables Egypt’s operators to share network infrastructure
Mobiserve Holding (www.mobiserveholding.com), solutions provider for telecommunication infrastructure engineering services in the Middle East and Africa announced the signing of a new cellular network tower sharing agreement with Egypt’s National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA). The agreement, signed this week at the premises of the NTRA at the Smart Village is a milestone for Egypt’s telecommunications industry, enabling telecom operators in Egypt to share network infrastructure.
Effective this month, the license confers on Mobiservethe ability to build their own cellular network sites and rent them to telecom operators in Egypt. The concept of network sharing in which multiple operators can share a single network tower or cellular site, reducing the cost of ownership and maintenance while increasing network coverage.
Already, network sharing is one of the fastest growing trends in the telecommunications industry, becoming a widely adopted business model in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. In the Middle East, regional operators are increasingly implementing this concept with UAE based operators du and Etisalat signing a network sharing agreement last year. This however, is one of the first licenses of its kind granted in Egypt.
Mr. Sameh Atalla, CEO of Mobiserve Holding, who signed the landmark agreement on behalf of the Holding company, commented on the announcement by saying, “This is a significant step for Mobiserveas it is in-line with one of the fastest growing trends in the industry. It not only enables Egyptian operators to bring costs down as they continue to roll out next generation networks but to push forward with innovative services for their customers.”
“It also gives operators the opportunity to focus on their core business while relying on an experienced company for managing network sites. As a result, we are extremely pleased to be signing such a landmark license agreement as it represents a real breakthrough for the Egypt’s telecommunications industry,” concluded Mr. Atalla.
By reducing duplication of the most expensive parts of an operator's network, cell sites, towers, base station equipment, and transmission network, operators deliver better services more cost effectively. Savings can be significant for an operator, 20% to 50% of an operator's capital or operating costs depending on the level of network sharing, without compromising network quality.
As a pioneer in the industry, Mobiserve Holdinghas been working as a service provider for managed services for over a decade. The Cairo based Holding company has deep seated expertise in the build out and maintenance of a number of network cellular sites in Egypt and neighboring countries. To date, Mobiserve has installed and is currently maintaining more than 12,000 sites Africa, the Middle East and South Asia.
It is the chosen infrastructure build out and engineering partner for a multitude of the region's leading operators including Mobinil, Vodafone and Etisalat in Egypt, Mobilis, Djezzy, and Nedjma in Algeria, Maroc Telecom, Meditel, and INWI in Morocco, Orange Tunisie, and Tunisiana in Tunisia, Mobily, STC, and Zain in KSA, Du in the UAE, Mobilink in Pakistan, Malitel in Mali and Banglalink in Bangladesh.
