In his speech, Eng. El-Gamal
pointed to the fact that the Egyptian government highly positions
investment in ICT infrastructure, as COVID-19 pandemic has affected the entire
socio-economic globe, changed its norms, and created “New Norms”. In this
regard, Eng. El-Gamal said that “a new norm”, that is, the diversification of
the family experience and their simultaneous needs necessitated a reliable and
secure ICT infrastructure to be able to fulfill these needs with quality and
continuity. This intensified the importance of the regulatory frameworks to
adapt to those changing norms in the nature of the Egyptian families' needs to
facilitate their needs among various sectors, he added.
Furthermore, he has
emphasized the fact that the Egyptian government exerted best efforts to raise
the efficiency of the ICT infrastructure, as it invested around 2 billion USD
in 2019 in ICT infrastructure in terms of connectivity, capacity, reachability
and applications, which had a great impact during the pandemic period on the
ability to absorb the dramatic increase of internet usage and major shifts in
user behaviour.
Eng. Hossam El-Gamal
said that just as COVID-19 had its negative impacts on almost all aspects of
life, but it still could be seen from a different perspective, as it had
positively affected the level of collaboration and integration between the
telecom sector and various sectors of the State. This expedited the response of
sectors to the socio-economic needs of Egyptian families.
The NTRA’s Executive
President clearly stated that the NTRA has collaborated and coordinated efforts
with telecom service providers and stakeholders in various sectors and took
measures and initiatives to increase the home internet monthly download quota,
enabling free access for educational platforms and websites to guarantee the
continuity and quality for students in their education process. In addition, it
facilitated free registration for e-wallets and provided also free hotlines for
citizens, to keep them updated with the latest news and precautions about the
pandemic, he said. Then he spotlighted the measures taken to facilitate means
for the medical teams, as the NTRA has provided them with free voice and data
packages to stay connected with their families while they are doing their
duties in the quarantine areas.
At the end of his
speech, the NTRA’s Executive President clearly stated that, during the
pandemic, it was proven that international collaboration is needed to exchange
best practices and share our experiences to overcome the negative impact of
such a crisis
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