Egypt expects the number of mobile phone subscribers nation-wide to rise by about 50 percent by the end of the first quarter of 2008, Communications Minister Tarek Kamel said on May 8.
Kamel said the projected increase to 30 million from just over 20 million subscribers now, was partly due to the start of services by Etisalat of the United Arab Emirates, whose launch this month made it the country's third mobile operator.
Egyptian mobile operator Mobinil reported nearly 10.7 million subscribers at the end of March, up 53 percent in 12 months. Rival operator Vodafone Egypt had 9.4 million subscribers, an increase of 47 percent from a year earlier. State news agency MENA quoted Kamel as saying the rise was also "in accordance with the current average increase" in subscribers.