The annual Global Information Technology Report released by World Economic Forum, ranks over 127 countries in the world in its Networked Readiness Index, based on the relative Information and Communications Technology (ICT) development in the individual countries.

One of the key indices the report looks at is the cost of a 3-minute local call during peak hours (US$) as a percentage of monthly GDP per capita using data compiled from International Telecommunication Union’s World Telecommunication Indicators 2007 and the International Monetary Fund’s World Economic Outlook Database (October 2007 edition).

Egypt, along with Hong Kong, Italy and United Arabs Emirates, turn out to be the cheapest places in the world to place a three minutes during peak time. Egypt's mobile phone market has experienced rapid growth thanks to the gradual liberalisation of the sector and intensifying competition amongst service providers and manufacturers.

Egypt has more than 25 million mobile phone subscribers as of 2007, and three mobile phone operators - Mobinil, Vodafone Egypt and Etisalat Egypt. Etisalat, which only launch in April, 2007 acquired 3.5 million subscribers within 6 months of its launch.

Mobile phone subscribers are projected to 34.8 million by 2010, representing 44% of Egypt's population. This growth will spur the mobile phone market in both telecoms-related consumer products and the customer base of telecoms operators.

This along with the government’s commitment to further deregulate the sector, and the possibility that a fourth mobile phone license may be issued in the future, will further push down prices.

The report also revealed that the most bottom part of the rankings were dominated by African countries with the most expensive to place a call in being Zimbabwe. A list of African countries and how they ranked in the cost of a mobile phone call is shown below.