National Telecom Authority instructs telecoms to provide compensation in form of free internet data after last week’s fire

Cairo – July 13, 2025: Telecom and internet services have been mostly restored following the significant disruptions caused by last week’s fire at the Ramses Central Exchange. The blaze, which initially erupted on Monday and briefly flared up again on Thursday before being swiftly contained, led to widespread outages across multiple governorates.

In response, the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA) instructed the country’s four major telecom providers to offer compensation to affected users. The incident underscored the vulnerability of essential infrastructure amid increasingly extreme weather conditions.

Fixed-line internet subscribers will receive an extra 10 GB of data, while mobile users are being credited with 1 GB. The compensation, while welcomed by many, has revived a long-standing debate about Egypt’s limited data offerings — particularly the lack of unlimited internet plans.

The fire comes as the country grapples with a severe heatwave, which has stoked multiple fires and pushed electricity demand to unprecedented levels. Power consumption peaked at 37 gigawatts on Thursday, raising alarms about whether the national grid can meet surging demand without resorting to blackouts.

While connectivity has been restored for most users, reports indicate that some bank ATMs remained non-operational as of Friday.

Last year, the government promised that the widespread power outages that plagued the country for two consecutive summers would not return. In preparation, it ramped up imports of mazut and secured floating storage regasification units (FSRUs) to expand LNG capacity.

However, recent reports suggest delays in deploying some of the new FSRUs, which may not be fully operational for several more weeks — potentially complicating efforts to keep the lights on during the hottest stretch of the year.