Egypt has completed Africa’s first trial of mobile services on the 6GHz band, activating a mobile base station on the frequency and completing the continent’s first data call over the spectrum at speeds of roughly 1.7 gigabits per second per user.
The National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Egypt (NTRA) ran the trial with Telecom Egypt and Huawei, testing the upper 6GHz range known as U6GHz, which spans 6.425 to 7.125GHz rather than the full 5.9 to 7.1GHz band under global discussion. Tamer El Mahdi, managing director and CEO of Telecom Egypt, confirmed the successful test and framed it as part of the operator’s ongoing push into next-generation network technologies.
NTRA said the band could expand network capacity and improve service quality in areas with heavy traffic, positioning the spectrum as a tool for the data-hungry workloads that increasingly define modern networks — artificial intelligence, IoT sensors, cloud computing and virtual and augmented reality. The regulator described the trial as part of Egypt’s broader digital transformation strategy and its ambition to become a regional hub for digital infrastructure, alongside efforts to keep pace with international 5G and next-generation developments.
The result gives Egypt bragging rights as the first African country to test mobile use of the 6GHz band, a frequency range global regulators have not yet agreed on how to allocate. Much of the world is still arguing over whether 6GHz should go primarily to licensed mobile operators, as Egypt is testing here, or stay largely reserved for unlicensed WiFi, the position several major markets including the United States have already taken. That unresolved fight at bodies like the ITU’s World Radiocommunication Conference means Egypt’s trial is a technical proof of concept, not a signal that commercial 6GHz mobile service is imminent anywhere on the continent.
There’s also a gap between test-lab speeds and what reaches ordinary users. A single base station hitting 1.7 Gbps in a controlled trial says little about performance across a citywide deployment, where spectrum has to be shared across thousands of devices and towers have to be built or retrofitted at scale. Egypt’s telecom sector has invested heavily in fibre and next-generation infrastructure over the past year, but 6GHz deployment would require new equipment, new handsets capable of using the band, and regulatory clarity that doesn’t yet exist even in markets far ahead of Egypt on network rollout.
The trial also lands against a backdrop where more basic connectivity gaps persist across the region. Nigeria’s biggest hyperscale data centre push is still running into power constraints rather than spectrum ones, and operators like MTN Ghana are still lobbying governments for basic 5G spectrum allocation rather than testing the frequency band beyond it. Egypt’s ecosystem is comparatively mature, with a well-capitalised fintech sector that regulators have continued to open up, but pushing into 6GHz while regional peers are still contesting mid-band spectrum access underscores how uneven Africa’s telecom infrastructure story remains.
For now, the achievement is a marker of technical capability and regulatory intent rather than a rollout plan. NTRA has not announced a commercial timeline, spectrum licensing terms, or which operators beyond Telecom Egypt would gain access if the band is opened for mobile use. Satellite alternatives are also entering the picture, with providers like Starlink already expanding direct-to-cell coverage across African markets that terrestrial 6GHz networks would eventually need to compete with on cost and coverage. Whether Egypt converts this first into a functioning commercial service, or into another regulatory milestone that outpaces the market’s ability to use it, will depend on decisions still to come.
