In August 2026, Egypt's National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA), working with Telecom Egypt and Huawei, announced Africa's first trial of mobile services in the upper 6 GHz band (6.425-7.125 GHz). The trial ran the continent's first 6 GHz mobile base station and first data call, and reached about 1.7 Gbit/s per user, according to Developing Telecoms' report of the announcement. NTRA's executive president, Mohamed Shamroukh, described the band as one of the strategic ranges being considered in Egypt's long-term national spectrum plan for 2030-2035, which is still under preparation.
The headline number is a demonstration, not a consumer speed. The more important fact is what NTRA did not do: it did not auction, assign or promise the band to anyone. That restraint is the right call.
The case for moving fast
The strongest argument for licensing the band to mobile operators now is capacity. Mobile networks are congested, and Egyptian consumers notice. Enterprise's coverage of the recent spectrum deal notes that mobile services accounted for 64,100 of 139,400 consumer complaints in the second half of 2025. Early commitment would also give operators and equipment vendors a long planning horizon, and it would signal to investors that Egypt intends to be an early mover in Africa. A regulator that waits risks watching the device ecosystem mature elsewhere.
That argument is serious. But it runs into three facts on the ground.
Why waiting is proportionate
First, the operators are already digesting a very large spectrum purchase. Egypt's 2026-2030 spectrum strategy came with a deal giving the four mobile operators 410 MHz of new spectrum for roughly $3.5 billion, according to the same Enterprise report. That report describes dollar-denominated obligations set against Egyptian-pound revenues, which is a real foreign-exchange strain. Layering a second large band onto those balance sheets before the first has been put to work would raise the cost of capital for network build-out, not lower it. Spectrum that operators cannot afford to light up is idle spectrum.
Second, the international rules give Egypt genuine choice. The 2023 World Radiocommunication Conference identified 6.425-7.125 GHz for IMT (mobile) in ITU Region 1, which includes Africa, while attaching a power-limit condition to protect wireless local area networks and satellite earth stations, as Turkey's regulator BTK summarised. An identification is permission, not an obligation. The same 700 MHz can serve licensed 5G, unlicensed Wi-Fi, or a split.
Third, the alternatives have real track records. In April 2020, the US Federal Communications Commission adopted rules making 1,200 megahertz across 5.925-7.125 GHz available for unlicensed use, betting that Wi-Fi and other unlicensed devices would carry a large share of data traffic. Developing Telecoms notes that countries are split: the US reserves the whole band for license-free Wi-Fi, while India favours Wi-Fi in the lower portion. Neither model has settled the question globally. A regulator that locks in early forfeits the chance to learn from them.
What a good 2030-2035 plan would look like
A trial is the cheapest form of evidence, and NTRA should treat it as the start of a public process, not its conclusion. Four practices would make the plan credible:
- Publish the trial data. Throughput per user is one metric. Coverage radius, indoor penetration at 6.5 GHz, and interference results against incumbent links matter more, and operators and Wi-Fi vendors should be able to see them.
- Consult on the split. A hybrid, with lower-power indoor sharing for Wi-Fi and licensed blocks where mobile demand is proven, would test both uses. The choice should follow measured demand rather than vendor enthusiasm.
- Tie any award to use-it-or-share-it terms. Egypt just doubled operator holdings; obligations to deploy, or to lease unused capacity, protect the public interest without heavy-handed price control.
- Account for currency risk in pricing. Dollar-denominated instalments against pound revenues are a risk regulators can reduce through longer schedules or local-currency pricing.
The pro-innovation reading
A pro-innovation stance does not mean assigning spectrum as fast as possible. It means getting spectrum into productive use at the lowest sustainable cost. An Egyptian startup ecosystem building on cheap unlicensed capacity benefits as much as one waiting for the next generation of 5G handsets. Vendors such as Huawei naturally want to show the band's mobile potential; a regulator's job is to weigh that against every other user.
Egypt has done the hard first step well: it tested before deciding. The test to come is whether NTRA publishes results, consults openly, and resists a premature award that strains operators still paying for the last one. With the 2030-2035 plan still being drafted, there is time to get the sequencing right.