Egypt loses mobile subscribers in October, penetration rate falls to 102.48%

The number of mobile service subscribers in Egypt declined 5.52% y-o-y in October 2018 to record 94.31 mn, down from 99.82 mn in October 2017, according to an ICT Ministry report (pdf). This brought Egypt’s mobile phone penetration rate to 102.48% by the end of October, down 7.89% y-o-y. The number of ADSL subscribers, meanwhile, increased 25% y-o-y, to stand at 6.31 mn in October 2018, up from 5.05 mn in October 2017. Mobile internet users rose 8.45% y-o-y to record 35.99 mn in October 2018. Federation of Egyptian Industries’ ICT division head Hamdy El Leithy attributed the decline in mobile phone penetration rate to MNOs passing on to customers the cost of higher taxes in the sector (watch, runtime 04:33)