The National Telecom Regulatory Authority (NTRA) has inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Egyptian Competition Authority (ECA) to form a permanent joint committee to develop the system for regulating free competition in the Egyptian telecom market.
The cooperation aims to synergize the efforts of regulators to attract more investments and integrate work mechanisms when it comes to regulation and supervision, especially in telecommunication, since it represents one of the main pillars of digital transformation. The cooperation also aims to restrain monopolies that may negatively affect the telecom services rendered to citizens.
The MoU reflects NTRA keenness to cooperate with ECA to support the telecom market and create an enabling environment for competition to attract investments through exchanging experiences.
The joint committee will be responsible for developing frameworks for the cooperation between the two sides; harnessing ECA capabilities and NTRA expertise to monitor the telecom sector regularly; and promoting competition in the sector in a way that helps improve the quality of services and facilitate citizens’ access to them, especially with the current orientation towards digitization.
In addition, the committee will work to open new markets in that promising sector; attract more investments; combat any practices that may hinder free competition; and early predict and prevent economic practices leading to monopolies that may have negative effects on the market.
Other mandates of the committee include restricting new regulations or policies that may adversely affect competition in the sector; ensuring maintaining fair competition; and fulfilling the second objective of ECA strategy on limiting laws, policies, and regulations that hinder free competition.
