Telecom Egypt taps up Nokia for country's first 5G network

Under the agreement, Nokia will supply kit from its AirScale portfolio – including baseband units (BBUs) and massive MIMO radios – all powered by its ReefShark system-on-chip (SoC).

The deal covers the ancient coastal city of Alexandria, and from there it's essentially a trip down the Nile for Nokia and Telecom Egypt, one that calls in at Cairo, Giza, Luxor and finally Aswan – all fairly sizeable conurbations.

This new agreement paves the way for the long-awaited launch of Egypt's first 5G services, and is a PR win for Nokia, because Telecom Egypt – which offers services under the 'We' brand – is also working extensively with the Finnish kit maker's big rivals.

As far back as 2019, Telecom Egypt deployed a 5G cloud core from Ericsson. In February this year, the two hailed a successful 5G trial at Egypt's New Administrative Capital. Also in February, Telecom Egypt tapped up Huawei for 5G wireless, core and transport network equipment.

But it's Nokia – which first signed a 5G Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Telecom Egypt in 2019 – that will get to bask in the glory of being used for Telecom Egypt's initial 5G launch locations.

"The introduction of 5G services enabled by our extensive portfolio will open exciting new opportunities for people and businesses in Egypt to experience enhanced mobile connectivity. Our collaboration establishes a strong foundation for driving the nation's digital transformation," said Tommi Uitto, president of mobile networks at Nokia.

The agreement also shines a light on Egypt's 5G strategy, which can kindly be described as 'confusing', or more accurately described as a 'hot mess'.

Telecom Egypt in January secured the country's first official 5G licence, paying the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA) the very reasonable fee of $150 million for a 15-year permit.

The development took industry watchers by surprise, since it was broadly understood that the NTRA was discussing auction rules with the country's four operators – Orange, Vodafone, Etisalat and Telecom Egypt – as recently as October 2023. Reports at the time claimed that licences would have a reserve price of $500 million, and that the plan was to conclude the whole process by December of that year.

Then, out of nowhere, Telecom Egypt acquires the country's first – and to-date, only – 5G licence for a bargain basement price.

On top of all that, all four operators already hold spectrum that can be used for 5G services, but for some reason, they aren't.

In late 2020, the NTRA awarded 2.6-GHz TDD spectrum to Etisalat, Vodafone, and Telecom Egypt, raising $1.17 billion in the process. In February 2022, Orange paid $440 million for its own chunk of 2.6-GHz.

According to spectrum-tracker.com, these particular frequencies fall within band n41 – a 5G new radio (NR) band. Despite having held this spectrum for several years – and despite support for the band from RAN vendors and handset makers – Egypt's operators have yet to make any attempt to modify their licences so they can refarm the spectrum for 5G networks.

Something doesn't add up here.