Sunday, May 29, 2011
(Adds analyst comment in 4th paragraph; background in the last two paragraphs.)
DUBAI (Zawya Dow Jones)--Egypt's Ministry of Communications and Information Technology will pay domestic mobile phone operators 100 million Egyptian pounds ($16.8 million) in compensation for the disruption of services during the revolution earlier this year, a spokesman said Sunday.
"The EGP100 million will go to mobile operators and internet providers," the ministry's spokesman told Zawya Dow Jones by telephone, confirming comments by Egypt's Telecommunications Minister Maged Osman carried by the country's state news agency earlier Sunday.
The Egyptian Co. For Mobile Services, or Mobinil, Egypt's largest mobile operator by number of subscribers, in February said damages caused by political events in Egypt were valued between EGP80 million and EGP100 million.
"This is a good step from the government; however compared to the numbers announced from Mobinil about the damages, the numbers seems quite low. We are looking forward for more details about the basis of how the amount will be divided between operators," said Ahmed Adel, a telecoms analyst at Cairo-based investment bank Naeem Holding.
Internet service providers, or ISPs, in Egypt said in late February that they would compensate subscribers for the interruption of services between Jan. 28 to Feb. 2 when political turmoil escalated in the country.
The Egyptian government restored domestic internet services on Feb. 2 after a week-long shutdown aimed at making it harder for demonstrators to organize protests. Mobile voice services were also disrupted in Egypt on Jan. 28, before President Hosni Mubarak stepped down on Feb. 11, putting an end to his 30-year regime.
Telecom stocks in Egypt closed higher Sunday as investors cheered the compensation package for the operators. Telecom Egypt finished up 2% at EGP15.99; Orascom Telecom rose 2.1% to EGP4.42 and Mobinil shares added 3% to EGP147.99.
The broader Egypt market ended 2.5% higher at 5548.06 Sunday. The benchmark EGX 30 Stock Index is up more than 13% since May 8, boosted by news of international aid pledges to bolster the troubled country's economy.
Mubarak, his former prime minister Ahmed Nazif and interior minister Habib Al Adly were jointly "ordered to pay the state 540 million Egyptian pounds from their personal funds," a judicial source said.
-By Shereen El Gazzar, Dow Jones Newswires; +971 444 61684; Shereen.elgazzar@dowjones.com
(Nikhil Lohade in Dubai contributed to this report.)
Copyright (c) 2011 Dow Jones & Co.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
29-05-11 1302GMT
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment