* Orange Egypt first operator to re-enter 4G talks
* Mobile operators had shunned licences over lack ofspectrum (Adds signing)
By Ola Noureldin
CAIRO, Oct 13 (Reuters) - Orange Egypt signed alicence deal on Thursday, paying $484 million to operatefourth-generation mobile phone services in the country of 90million after the government agreed to offer it additionalspectrum.
Egypt is selling four 4G licences as part of a long-awaitedplan to reform the telecoms sector and to raise money forstretched government finances.
The country's three existing mobile phone operators -Orange, Vodafone and Etisalat - initially all turneddown the 4G licences saying the amount of spectrum on offer wasnot sufficient to allow them to offer the service efficiently.
The regulator then announced that operators which paid forthe licence entirely in dollars would be given priority inbuying additional spectrum. U.S. dollars are scarce in Egypt dueto a long-running economic crisis.
Orange Egypt, a subsidiary of French telecoms group Orange, said early on Thursday it wished to "renegotiateacquisition of a 4G license in light of new terms."
The regulator said the company had until October 23 tosubmit a formal offer but the chief executive of Orange Egyptsigned a $484 mln deal on Thursday, receiving 10 megaherz ofspectrum instead of the 7.5 initially on offer.
The head of Egypt's telecom regulator said Orange would payhalf the licence fee in Egyptian pounds and had also acquired alicence to offer fixed line services for a further $11 million.
Telecom Egypt, the state's fixed-line monopoly,was the only company to take up the original offer, buying a 4Glicense in August for 7.08 billion Egyptian pounds ($797million) to enter the mobile market directly for the first time.The company later offered to buy additional spectrum notacquired by other operators.
The regulator said it would reconvene on October 23 todiscuss additional options for rolling out 4G services thatinclude holding an international auction for the remaininglicences and selling additional frequency to Telecom Egypt.
Kuwait's Zain, China Telecom, SaudiTelecom and Lebara KSA have all expressed interest inacquiring Egyptian 4G licences if the established companies bowout.
Egypt needs hard currency after burning through its foreignexchange reserves as political turmoil hit foreign investmentand tourism since a 2011 uprising. (Writing by Amina Ismail, Eric Knecht and Lin Noueihed; Editingby Adrian Croft and Alexandra Hudson)
Vodafone (VOD)