Page 144 - SAMENA Trends - July-August 2022

REGULATORY & POLICY UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

Egypt

The National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority’s (NTRA) WE: Number of complaints escalated against WE were 345/ 100
released the first semi-annual report on telecom-user complaints thousand subscribers. Landline complaints scored a number
for the period between January and June 2022. NTRA is a strategy of 295/100 thousand subscribers, whereas the response rate to
to support the user rights and ensure high-quality services in complaints after being escalated to NTRA had reached 77 percent
Egypt’s market. The report shows the most important indicators with an average response time of 2.75 days. Cash amounts of 3.8
with respect to landline, mobile, fixed internet and mobile set million refunded to users post entitlement by NTRA from operators.
complaints. It also displays the rate and time of response to such (August 22, 2022) en.amwalalghad.com
complaints post escalation to NTRA. NTRA actually gets telecom-
user complaints regarding operators via call center on (155). In The Minister of Communications and IT, Amr Talaat noted that
Addition, it has recently provided new e-channels to facilitate Egypt is taking steady steps towards building a digital state. He
communication with users as well as to deliver non-traditional made these remarks during the Egyptian-Lebanese Association
channels for complaints; such as, MyNTRA App, NTRA’s website, of Businessmen’s (ELBA). As remarked, The Egyptian Ministry
e-mail address as well as instant messaging apps like WhatsApp. of Communications and Information Technology has a three-
For this reason, 143235 complaints were received during the first axis strategy, digital transformation, providing highly efficient
half-year period of 2022 because of such procedures. Operators’ and stable telecommunication services, and providing digital job
response rate to complaints through the same period reached opportunities for youth. He announced that Egypt has entered into
89 percent whereas response time was 1.7 days in average. a new phase of digital services incorporating electronic signature.
Complaints regarding mobile set, mobile service, fixed internet Previously the electronic signature system was activated in several
service as well as landline service are presented in details as stages, starting with its activation in government applications,
follow: The overall number of complaints escalated by mobile where government employees used the electronic signature at
set owners to NTRA regarding dealerships was 1937 during the work, then came the stage of activating the electronic signature
first half-year period of 2022. Moreover, the rate of complaint- system in applications for enterprises and companies which
resolving reached 94 percent with an average time of 4.7 days. included examples such as the electronic invoice in cooperation
Most importantly, complaints were raised regarding poor technical with the Ministry of Finance. The latest phase is the application
support by 48 percent, rejection of mobile-set exchange by 31 to citizens’ services, where consular services for Egyptians
percent, maintenance issues by 13 percent and re-occurrence residing abroad will begin. In addition, the government digital
of problem post repair by 8 percent. The average time taken for transformation project has also been implemented to enable
resolving complaints per dealership was as follow; Safi by 3.6, I2 government agencies to exchange data, allowing Egyptian
by 4.5, Ro’ya by 4.6, Raya by 5, Sky by 5.5 days. Number of mobile citizens to utilize one government portal to access and transact
complaints was 66/ 100 thousand subscribers, whereas the with the government under the Digital Egypt Platform. Giant
response rate to complaints after being escalated to NTRA had data centers have also been established at the highest technical
got 92 percent and the average response time had been 0.72 days. level to host and preserve citizens’ data. Digital Egypt platform
Vodafone: Number of complaints escalated against Vodafone currently includes more than 130 government services. Talaat
was 64/ 100 thousand subscribers. noted, ‘There are a number of digital transformation projects
Orange: 77 complaints/ 100 thousand subscribers were escalated being implemented with investments of more than 15 billion EGP
against Orange. (Egyptian Pound) equivalent to almost 8 million USD. The projects
Etisalat: Number of complaints escalated against Etisalat was 57/ include the digitization off the agricultural tenure system, health
100 thousand subscribers. insurance system, the law enforcement system, economic courts
WE: Number of complaints escalated against WE was 58/ 100 with remote litigation system, and real estate licensing system.
thousand subscribers. The Minister also noted that more than 90% of the data traffic
Number of fixed internet complaints was 442/ 100 thousand between East and West passes through Egyptian lands and waters.
subscribers, whereas the response rate to complaints after being Egypt’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology
escalated to NTRA had reached 94 percent and the average is set to expand the international infrastructure outside Egypt by
response time had been 2.07 days. increasing the number of submarine cables, and expanding and
Vodafone: Number of complaints escalated against Vodafone developing the international infrastructure inside Egypt. To date
was 755/ 100 thousand subscribers. Egypt has expanded the local network that transmits data from
Orange: Number of complaints escalated against Orange was the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea was doubled to increase
1219 complaints/ 100 thousand subscribers. from 2,700 km to more than 5,000 km.
Etisalat: Number of complaints escalated against Etisalat was (July 27, 2022) www.itp.net
825/ 100 thousand subscribers.

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