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Egyptian incumbent teleommunications service provider, TE (Telecom Egypt) and Orange Data has signed and agreement on Bit-stream Access service. Orange Data is the first customer for TE in Egypt to partner for Bit-stream Access service. Orange Data customers can avail higher internet speeds.

TE in a press release announced that the signing of this agreement on bitstream access services enables Orange Data to avais the use of new technologies including fiber to the home (FTTH) and VDSL raising the maximum speed to 100Mbps from 16Mbps previously.

After the signing ceremony, the Managing Director and CEO of TE said that the the agreements with Orange supports TE’s long-term relationship with Orange as a strategic partner across several dimensions of TE services. The new bitstream framework is a testament of our continuous strive to avail the best quality services to the local market and allows Telecom Egypt to monetize its growing infrastructure investments.

Orange Data is the subsidiary of France based global telecommunication service provider Orange. Orange operated in 29 countries and has a customer base of more than 273 million including more than 20 million fixed broadband subscribers. Commenting on the announcement, the CEO of Orange Egypt, Mr. Yasser Shaker said that an agreement with Telecom Egypt is
an important step to provide higher-speed internet services to their customers. Also, it will help Orange Data to maintain its leading position in the Egyptian market offering its customers high quality telecom services.

Bit-stream access is a term used in telecommunication sector to denote the access service provided by a service provider by installing a premise equipment and making it accessible to multiple service providers. In effect, the wireline infrastructure is owned by TE and Orange Data will have access to the premise equipment installed by TE.

Egypt has a mix of broadband access technologies that includes ADSL, DSL, FTTP and FTTH apart from wireless access. TE still makes use its existing copper infrastructure to deliver broadband services to its subscribers in Egypt. In Bit-stream Access service agreement with Orange Data, for example, TE will share its ADSL equipment.

Bit-stream Access service will not restrict the telecom operator from providing transmission services to other competitors. Telecom operator can use ATM or IP network to carry competitors’ DSLAM to a Transit switch from where the competitors may have a POP. The handover points in a Bit-stream service could be at DSLAM, ATM POP or at IP level.

Bit-stream access business model helps to open the competition in the broadband market. Thus, it promotes healthy and friendly competition in the telecommunication market. Bit-stream Access allows competitors to offer their own products to consumers even if they do not own an infrastructure in the last mile. For the incumbent operator, it is an opportunity to make more business by providing the non-utilized capacities of their investment.