| Efforts of NTRA and MCIT to curb the spread of COVID-19 - 07/04/2020 |
| Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and the National Telecom Regulatory Authority |
| TELECOM/ICT Policy Makers and Regulators | Arab States | Egypt |
| NTRA agreed with the four telecom operators in Egypt, in coordination with the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP), on granting 3,000 minutes and 10 gigabytes per month, for free, for all mobile networks, to all doctors, nurses, administrative personnel and staff working in the isolation hospitals for COVID-19 patients, nationwide. Operators were also instructed to unify working hours at stores for serving citizens nationwide in light of the curfew announced by Cabinet, and to promote e-transactions by offering promotions to citizens using e-payment, either through the mobile application of each company or through the e-cash service; as well as to take the necessary preventive measures for facing COVID-19 and providing a safe work environment for employees, with ensuring continuity of work. MCIT is supporting e-learning during the education suspension period, including increasing the download quota of home internet packages by 20%, at a cost of EGP 200 million, borne by the state, and enabling free browsing of educational platforms and websites, to ensure education is not affected. MCIT also enabled free access to the hotlines dedicated for the MoHP, and added 200 service providers to increase the call receiving capacity. NTRA urged to continue work at call centers to answer customers’ inquiries, reducing the number of personnel at companies’ outlets, and increasing the use of technological means for circulating documents, in addition to holding meetings via videoconference. |