A United Arab Emirates consortium led by Etisalat, including Egypt Post, the National Bank of Egypt and the Commercial International Bank, beat eight other bidders to win Egypt's third mobile phone network licence by offering a bid of about $2.9 billion.

The group, which will provide GSM and 3G mobile services, is expected to gain 20-25 per cent marketshare. Etisalat will then compete against Vodafone Egypt and Mobinil –­ a joint venture set up by Egypt's Orascom Telecom Holding and France Telecom –­ for the country's mobile phone subscribers.