Egypt's regulator drove 129,000 km of roads to test mobile networks in the second quarter

Egypt's National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA) published the results of its second-quarter 2026 mobile network quality measurements on 20 August, covering April to June. The tests were carried out by the regulator's National Centre for Monitoring Telecommunications Service Quality.

What 129,000 km actually means

The report states that measurement distances reached 129,000 kilometres on the main and secondary roads of cities and villages during the quarter. That is the distance the regulator's vehicles drove while sampling voice calls and data sessions.

It is not a statement about the geographic extent of Egypt's mobile coverage, and it should not be read as one. Drive testing samples the network along the routes travelled; a larger number means a wider sampling effort, not a larger network. For context, the NTRA reported 139,000 km of measurement distance in the first quarter of 2025, which shows the figure varies between quarters as a function of the testing programme.

The tests were run using dedicated measurement equipment and vehicles, and covered 119 cities and districts. All four licensed mobile operators were assessed: Vodafone Egypt, Orange Egypt, e& Egypt and Telecom Egypt's WE.

The indicators measured

On voice, the regulator measures call setup failure, call drop rate, call setup time and voice clarity. On data, it publishes download and upload speed for the slowest 10 per cent of measurement samples — a deliberately conservative measure that reflects the weaker end of the user experience rather than a headline peak. Latency is not among the indicators the NTRA describes in this report.

Results are then expressed as the average number of areas, out of the 119 tested, found to be breaching quality thresholds.

Voice results

Vodafone recorded the fewest voice-affected areas at 3, an improvement from 7 in the first quarter. e& Egypt improved to 5 from 8, and Orange to 8 from 10.

WE moved in the opposite direction, with voice-affected areas rising to 15 from 10 in the first quarter — the weakest voice result of the four networks in the quarter.

Data results and download speeds

On data quality, WE recorded no areas breaching thresholds at all, down from an average of two in the first quarter. e& Egypt improved to one affected area from two, Orange held steady at four, and Vodafone improved slightly to 15 from 16.

Average download speeds moved in both directions. Vodafone rose to 66 Mbps from 62, and e& Egypt to 62 Mbps from 61. Orange fell to 49 Mbps from 53, and WE fell to 76 Mbps from 83 — while still recording the highest figure of the four operators.

Taken together, no operator led on every measure. Vodafone was strongest on voice, WE fastest on data and clean on data quality, e& Egypt improved on most indicators, and Orange showed a stable data-quality position alongside a declining average download speed.

What the regulator did alongside the measurements

The report also lists actions the NTRA took during the period. It approved 799 new coverage sites during the second quarter, and completed measurement runs on coastal roads and main corridors used by summer travellers, including tourist villages along the North Coast, El Alamein and event venues.

On spectrum, the regulator says it assigned the first band of frequencies to mobile operators under the 2026–2030 spectrum strategy, with Vodafone Egypt's assignment made in the first quarter of 2026 and Orange Egypt and e& Egypt's assignments falling in the third quarter. That programme is the one Cairo Stream covered in the $3.5 billion spectrum award to the four operators, and its mechanics are set out in the guide to 5G and spectrum in Egypt. Longer-term band planning, including the upper 6 GHz trial, sits further out on the same roadmap.

How to read this against the complaints data

These measurements are technical samples taken by vehicle along roads. They are not consumer sentiment, and they do not count user disputes. The regulator's separate complaints report for the first half of 2026 covers that ground, and the two datasets should not be merged: an operator can perform well on drive tests and still generate a high volume of billing or service complaints, or the reverse.

The NTRA does not publish per-area results, so the reported area counts cannot be mapped to specific neighbourhoods. Nor does the report include a comparison with the same quarter of 2025; the comparisons above are the quarter-on-quarter ones the regulator itself provides.