The two companies will form a joint venture to build, operate and commercialise fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) and fibre-to-the-site (FTTS) access infrastructure on a wholesale basis in Egypt.
Between them, they will invest US$600 million over the next ten years to build a modern fibre network that will provide at least six million households access to high-speed internet.
4iG Group and Telecom Egypt are yet to agree on a business model, exact ownership structure, governance processes and technological details of the joint venture.
The project aligns with the Egyptian government Digital Egypt and Egypt Vision 2030 strategies, with the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in the presence of Egyptian Prime Minister Dr. Mostafa Madbouly.
Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Dr. Amr Talaat, was also present.
The fibre-to-the-site portion of the network will unlock greater capacity on Egypt’s mobile network, boosting capacity and facilitating faster rollout of 5G.
In addition to 5G, Mohamed Nasr, managing director and CEO of Telecom Egypt said many other next generation services such as IoT and enterprise networks would be supported by the joint venture.
“We look forward to this endeavour, which will provide unparalleled performance and future-proof connectivity for generations to come, while ensuring that we maintain our position as one of the leading ICT providers in Egypt,” Nasr said.
Egypt has seen significant investment in its internet infrastructure over the past six years, from Telecom Egypt and other players, with internet speeds increasing by a factor of ten in that period.
The move also expands 4iG’s strategy of expanding its telecoms expertise internationally.
Earlier this year 4iG signed a separate MoU with Telecom Egypt to deploy a subsea cable between Egypt and Albania, its first foray into the subsea cable industry.
