The Cairo Regional Centre for International Commercial Arbitration has delivered its verdict in the case between mobile operators Vodafone Egypt and Etisalat Misr, that has been going for the past three years, on interconnection rates.
The court has ordered the subsidiary of the British group to provide compensation of 750 million Egyptian pounds (41,751,179 USD) to the UAE telecoms group subsidiary for violation of the regulator’s decision, setting out the financial contribution due by each party to the other for any service unit rendered.
The National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (NTRA) established these interconnection tariffs between Vodafone Egypt and Etisalat Misr taking into consideration fairness and transparency in the national telecom market. But Vodafone Egypt refused to respect the regulator’s decisions, and not accepting interference in the establishment of interconnection prices.
Back in 2016, it is Vodafone Egypt that started the arbitration process, which is currently a disadvantage. The company claimed Etisalat a 230 million Egyptian pounds compensation.
According to a source close to the case from Etisalat Misr, “Vodafone lost the case and we got 750 million pounds. The arbitration cases are final, which means that the judgment obtained by the company is enforceable.”
