Growth in the Egyptian mobile telecoms market is expected to slow by a third this year, an analyst with EFG-Hermes has predicted. Marise Ananian, head of telecoms research at EFG-Hermes says that the country will add around 8 million new subscribers during 2009, compared to the 12 million in 2008.
"We assume market saturation in Egypt will be at 80 to 85 percent (of the population). The mobile penetration rate was at 55 percent at the end of 2008 and there is still room for growth but it will take until 2015 or 2016," she told the Reuters news agency.
Ananian said Mobinil had been most aggressive in seeking new customers but would likely lose some ground to Etisalat Misr, which has about a 13 percent share and could probably reach 22 percent in the longer term.
According to figures from the Mobile World analysts, the largest operator in the country is MobiNil (19.3m) followed by Vodafone Egypt (17.6m) and the new entrant, Etisalat Misr (3.56m).
On the web - Mobile World - Reuters
Posted to the site on 17th May 2009
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/37509.php