The Tunisian government awarded 5G licences, with 700 MHz and 3.5 GHz spectrum, to the existing mobile network operators (MNOs), while the United Arab Emirates licensed Starlink and Iridium to provide satellite telecoms services.

The Bahrain Network, BNET, wants to decommission the copper network by end March 2025, and has also acquired the fibre assets of other operators.

Algeria and Egypt used different approaches to handle quality of service (QoS) failures. Algeria imposed fines on MNOs of around US$8m in total for failing to meet their coverage and quality of service requirements but Egypt introduced investment commitments instead of fines for mobile QoS failures.

The Tunisian regulator specified that only 5G broadband reaching at least 30 Mbps could be marketed as highspeed. Morocco eased the fixed number portability process and Türkiye increased caps for mobile retail tariffs by around 27% from the level of October 2023.

Egypt permitted eSIM services, while Qatar regulated cloud data interoperability and data portability applying to all cloud services providers in Qatar.

Cullen International’s latest MENA Telecoms Update details the most significant regulatory developments taking place in the region between 5 November 2024 and 27 January 2025.

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