Short answer: 4G LTE covers Cairo, Giza, Alexandria, the Nile Delta, Luxor, Aswan and the Red Sea resorts. It weakens to 3G in parts of Sinai and in the Western Desert oases, and it can disappear in the White Desert. We publish no speed in megabits per second for any of these places, because we have not measured them and a figure copied from elsewhere would mislead you. What we can tell you is the network class in each region, and what that class lets you do.
Region by region
This is the classification on our coverage page.
- Cairo and Giza, pyramids included: 4G LTE.
- Alexandria and the Nile Delta: 4G LTE.
- Luxor and Aswan: 4G LTE.
- Nile cruise between Luxor and Aswan: 4G LTE, with a stable signal along the river.
- Hurghada, Sharm el-Sheikh and Marsa Alam: 4G LTE.
- Dahab: 3G to 4G.
- Mount Sinai and Saint Catherine: 3G.
- Siwa Oasis: 3G.
- White Desert and Bahariya: variable; expect no signal away from the villages.
Inside any of these areas the signal still changes from one street to the next. Thick stone walls, basements, tunnels and the inside of monuments weaken it. On a boat it fades as you move away from the coast. A crowded place at a busy hour, the pyramids at midday or a stadium on match night, is slower than the same place at dawn.
What each network class lets you do
- 4G LTE: everything a traveller normally does. Maps, ride apps, messages with photos, social media, video, sharing the connection with a laptop.
- 3G: messages, e-mail, maps and light browsing. Photos upload slowly and video is not something to count on.
- Variable or no signal: download offline maps, tickets and addresses before you leave the last town.
The speed you get also depends on your plan
The network is one half of the answer; the plan is the other. Almost every "unlimited" travel eSIM gives a quantity of full-speed data per day and then slows down. Ours gives about 1 GB a day at full 4G LTE speed, then 512 Kbps until the next daily reset, with no cut-off. At 512 Kbps, messaging, maps, e-mail and ordinary browsing keep working; video in high definition does not.
Other sellers publish larger daily allowances, and we list them in our comparison. If you plan to stream every evening or work from a laptop, that figure matters more than the name of the network.
What about 5G?
Egypt's operators launched commercial 5G in June 2025 and are rolling it out in stages. Our supplier's catalogue does not state 5G for our plans, so we sell them as 4G LTE and promise nothing more. If your phone shows 4G or LTE, nothing is wrong.
Three networks instead of one
Our eSIM connects to Vodafone Egypt, Orange Egypt and e& Egypt. We do not rank them: we have no measurements that would justify saying one is faster than another. What three networks give you is a fallback. Where one is weak or congested, the phone can use another, automatically or by hand.
How to get the best connection
- Turn data roaming on for the eSIM line. Without it the phone shows signal bars and loads nothing.
- Force a reconnection: airplane mode on for ten seconds, then off.
- Choose the network by hand when the automatic choice is slow: in the eSIM line's settings, turn automatic selection off and try another of the three.
- Move: a window, a terrace or the upper deck of a boat often changes everything.
- Save your full-speed data: turn off automatic app and photo backups on mobile data.
If nothing loads at all, the checks are in eSIM not working in Egypt. For durations and prices, see our plans.
Sources
Coverage by place: our coverage page. Networks, daily allowance and reduced speed: our supplier's catalogue. Launch of commercial 5G: Egypt's National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, June 2025. We have not measured speeds in Egypt and this page gives none. Article rewritten on 8 October 2026; an earlier version gave speed figures that had no source.
See also: Egypt Internet Speed Ranking 2026: Mobile vs Fixed and Best Mobile Network in Egypt: 2026 Ranking.