18 October 2019

The New Administrative Capital will eventually replace Cairo (pictured) as the capital city of Egypt

The Egyptian communications ministry has started work on a E£40bn (US$2.44bn) telecom network as part of the first phase of a new capital city being built east of Cairo, according to reports. 

It signed a cooperation agreement with the Administrative Capital for Urban Development (ACUD) – the new capital’s owner and developer – to begin working on the network over a six-month period.

ACUD is providing funding for it. 

Known as the New Administrative Capital, the new city is eventually expected to cover around 700 square km.

The first phase, covering about 168 square km will have ministries, residential neighbourhoods, a diplomatic quarter and a financial district.

Although the providers of the new network have not been confirmed, government-controlled Telecom Egypt is widely-tipped to be involved, having been in other recent telecom and cloud infrastructure announcements in the country. 

In March this year, US giant Microsoft and Telecom Egypt said they were collaborating to extend the former’s cloud network in Egypt.

The latter said it was providing low-latency connectivity into and across the northeast African nation to help improve, increase and enhance performance for Microsoft customers.

In December 2018, Liquid Telecom said it would invest US$400m in Egypt over three years as part of a major partnership with Telecom Egypt, which will include network infrastructure and data centres.