• 23:14
  • Monday ,10 March 2014
العربية

Campaign to improve internet speeds in Egypt

By-Ahram

Home News

00:03

Monday ,10 March 2014

Campaign to improve internet speeds in Egypt

A group of young people have launched a campaign to improve the speed and lower the cost of using the internet in Egypt.

"It all started when I saw a video by Omar Wahid, the admin of a Facebook page for gamers, who explained the poor state of internet services in Egypt," said Ahmed Abdel-Naby, who launched 'Internet Rev. Egypt' on 7 December last year.
 
Abdel-Naby created the page after comparing the speed and cost of internet services in Egypt with other countries.
 
The campaign has resonated with many people and the page already has more than 300,000 likes.
 
"We want quicker internet speed, lower prices for broadband and mobile internet service, and better customer service," he said.
 
But despite the interest the campaign has generated, no officials have been in contact with its organisers.
 
The National Telecom Regulatory Authorities (NTRA) recently met with all the internet service companies in Egypt to discuss the quality of their service, an official at the authority said.
 
They discussed the short and long term projects necessary to improve internet services in the country.
 
The official said internet prices are the regulator's responsibility, but the quality of the service should be guaranteed by the service providers. 
 
In Egypt, there are around 220 internet service providers that are mainly dominated by four companies.
 
Ookla, the global leader in broadband testing and web-based network diagnostic applications, produced a map comparing prices in US dollars of a megabyte per second and broadband internet speeds around the world.
 
Ahram Online has used the study to show the difference in prices and speeds in various countries.
 
According to the study, the average internet speed in Egypt is 2.22 megabytes per second at a cost of $18.58 per megabyte.
 
There are 38.75 million internet users in Egypt