Egypt’s National Telecommunications Regulatory Agency (NTRA) said it has signed an agreement with the government’s Consumer Protection Agency (CPA) to create a joint digital platform designed to resolve complaints about telecom services more quickly.

Under the agreement revealed on Monday in an NTRA post on Facebook, the digital platform will include an online complaint registration system and an automated mechanism to facilitate processing of complaints. Data from the platform will be stored in a database that can be accessed by the CPA and telecoms operators – all of which will facilitate and expedite complaint resolution, the NTRA said.

The NTRA and CPA will also develop a coordination framework to share information and find ways to promote awareness among telecoms users of their rights and responsibilities, as well as a culture of governance and development among service providers.

The agreement also calls for that the formation of a joint executive committee with representatives from the NTRA and CPA to follow up on implementation of the platform.

CPA head Ibrahim Al-Sajini said the agreement represents an important step to confronting practices that breach the rights of telecoms users, and ensuring that consumer complaints are acknowledged and resolved more quickly.

Currently, telecoms customers in Egypt can file complaints either with the service provider directly, or – if the dispute can’t be resolved there – via the NTRA’s contact centre, website, WhatsApp channel and the My NTRA app.

According to the latest stats from NTRA, the regulator fielded over 322,000 complaints in 2023. Of those, 81% were received via the call centre, while 8% were raised via WhatsApp, 7% registered on its website and 4% via My NTRA.

NTRA said that the operator response rate to complaints in 2023 reached 90%, with response times averaging 2.6 days.