There it is: 602-03,” says Vodafone Egypt CEO Ian Gray as he points out the 03 symbol on the list of available networks my cell phone is showing. The “602” is the international mobile code for Egypt, the “03” represents the third operator, proof that Etisalat Misr is up and running.

For Gray, speaking just days after his newest competitor went live, this latest development simply means that a job he loves dearly just got a little bit spicier.

“The complexity of the marketplace has just undergone a tremendous change,” he says. “When there are two players, you can plan your own actions and, against that, anticipate what the competitor may do in response. Once you have a third player in the market, you might be able to anticipate what each player may want to do in response to your moves, but where the complexity really comes in is that one of them may react and then the other player may react to them rather than you.

“That creates much more uncertainty,” Gray continues, “but if you enjoy the business, it also means that it’s a lot more fun.”

“They couldn’t complete a walkway [to Etisalat’s temporary headquarters] in six months, while we had to finish the whole network and put together a company within the same period of time.”

Whether you see it as a source of fun or uncertainty, the entrance of a third competitor in the long-standing footrace between Vodafone Egypt (bt100 number 6) and Orascom Telecom-owned Mobinil (bt100 number 7) is big news for the telecom sector, the consumer and the nation’s business community. Trying to predict how Etisalat will shake things up is a fool’s errand, but one thing is clear: The Emirati operator plans to pull out all the stops in its bid to quickly capture market share.

On May 9, just one week into operations, Etisalat Egypt CEO Saleh El-Abdouli tells us his company had already acquired 900,000 subscribers: 300,000 from its pre-launch Reserve Your Number program and another 600,000 in the seven days since going live.

“The first week has surpassed even our most optimistic expectations,” El-Abdouli says. “People have been turning out to our shops in record numbers. Judging by the response that we have had thus far, we will have no problem achieving our goal of 10 million subscribers within three years.”

El-Abdouli’s claims are as expected as they are impossible to verify at this point in the game, but anecdotal evidence bears him out: Etisalat’s shop in CityStars Mall, one of three in Cairo that the company owns directly, was packed during the first week of operations. It’s difficult to ascertain how many people were there to simply inquire about the new service and how many were there to subscribe, but the sheer level of interest is a positive indicator.

In addition to Etisalat’s two main distributors —Sky and i2 — the upstart operator plans to grow its retail footprint through a partnership with Egypt Post, which owns 20% of Etisalat Egypt. El-Abdouli plans 20 large Etisalat shops and 1,000 smaller storefronts in key post offices throughout Egypt.

In the original bidding consortium, Etisalat owned 66% of Etisalat Misr, while Egypt Post held 20%, the National Bank of Egypt owned 10% and Commercial International Bank (bt100 number 15) held a 4% share. CIB has since reduced its holding to 1%, selling 1.5% stakes to each of two Emirati investors.

El-Abdouli has no exact statistics on how many of his Egyptian customers are first-time subscribers, but he is willing to bet that a good number of them are newcomers who have been waiting for a third operator to launch with better, more affordable packages. In either case he is pleased with the outcome.

“It is our plan to churn customers from the incumbents as well as increase the penetration rate in Egypt, which at 20% is still very low even in comparison to countries with similar per capita incomes, including Morocco, which has 45% penetration,” El-Abdouli says. “Our goal is to increase the penetration rate in Egypt to at least 50% in the coming few years.”

Rolling out a Network

At the end of our discussion, El-Abdouli picks up his cell phone and laughs. In the duration of our 45-minute-long interview, he’s gotten 27 missed calls, which should say something about the pace at which he’s been running since Etisalat won the license to operate in Egypt last summer, paying a stunning LE 16.7 billion for the privilege.

On most days, El-Abdouli and his team are in the office by eight and work straight through till midnight with very few days off.

An engineer by training, El-Abdouli has been with Etisalat for more than 15 years. In his previous post with the group, he was the UAE-based general manager of networks, which included fixed line, cable, satellite and submarine networks in addition to mobile. He also headed up the technical committees that worked on the company’s successful bids for licenses in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Egypt.

Although no stranger to hard work, the past few months have been tough. El-Abdouli has been challenged with the formidable task of establishing a company, setting up a nationwide wireless network and devising a killer marketing and PR strategy for what has been one of the most visible and highly anticipated launches in Egyptian corporate history.

He had about six months to do it.

“As you can see, there is still no paved entrance to the building that we are temporarily leasing from the Smart Village until we construct our own permanent headquarters down the road. They couldn’t complete a walkway in six months, while we had to finish the whole network and put together a company within the same period of time,” El-Abdouli says.

But the humor is not without foundation. Because of what he refers to as “circumstances beyond our control,” Etisalat’s launch date, originally scheduled for late February, had to be pushed back three times. On one end, rumors abounded about the incumbents intentionally delaying the launch by not honoring their agreements on interconnectivity and national roaming. On the other extreme, a national brouhaha erupted over the potential dangers of the mobile base stations that Etisalat was attempting to install.

“Building 600 base stations in such a short period of time involved having people work day and night,” El-Abdouli says. “It has been very difficult for us because not only are there a lot of routine procedures involved in getting the various permits to install these stations, but for some reason there has been this whole controversy about the health hazards involved.

“We follow the strictest FCC [Federal Communications Commission] and ANSI [American National Standards Institute] standards when it comes to installation. All the studies conducted worldwide have proven that when installed properly, these stations are 100% safe. In fact, we have one right here on the top of our own building.”

Etisalat is currently working on an awareness campaign in partnership with the state regulator —the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority — that will include television and print ads extolling the safety of mobile base stations. The company is also outsourcing to hundreds of companies to work on acquiring permits and installing those stations. El-Abdouli hopes to see his network grow to 1,800 base stations by year’s end from 600 today.

“Delivering overall quality is of the utmost importance now that the competition has been upped a notch. If you want to make a call you have to be able to make it.”

“As for our issues with the incumbents, we were simply unable to reach an agreement with them on time for the originally scheduled February launch date,” El-Abdouli claims. “There were three main issues: interconnect agreements, national roaming and number portability. An interconnect agreement was signed between the three parties on May 7, but we are still in the process of negotiating national roaming, which will allow us to roam on other networks in areas where we still don’t have coverage. We are also negotiating number portability, which will allow subscribers to switch from one network to the other without having to change their number.”

Under the NTRA’s ground rules, Etisalat was supposed to cover six cities — Cairo, Alexandria, Sharm El-Sheikh, Hurghada, Luxor and Aswan — immediately upon launching. El-Abdouli says the operator had 40 cities on May 1. At when we spoke a week after the launch, he expected an agreement on national roaming to give Etisalat access to the few areas of the countries where there is still no coverage “within days.”

“With number portability, there are still a number of outstanding issues because this requires the NTRA to act as a clearing house between the three operators, so that you can take the number from operator A to operator B with the same code. You could have a 010 or 012 code and be an Etisalat subscriber. This already exists in many countries — including Saudi Arabia and the UAE. It gives the customer more of a free choice. They can choose the network that is most suitable for them without worrying about changing their number,” he explains.

In the months leading up to the launch, a period during which Etisalat was conspicuously silent about its predicament, the local media engaged in wild speculation about what was holding up the launch. Most often blamed was market leader Mobinil, which many media outlets were only too happy to cast as the ruthless, uncooperative villain blocking interconnect agreements.

From his office in the penthouse suite atop the North Tower of Nile City — the Orascom family of companies’ gorgeous headquarters buildings — Mobinil CEO Alex Shalaby shakes his head in resignation when asked about friction with Etisalat.

“Mobinil is always being singled out,” he says. “It’s ok, I accept that. It just might be the price you have to pay for being market leader. We were also the ones declared too frugal to pay for the 3G license,” he laughs, “but I still believe that was a sound business decision and not something that I am apologetic for in anyway.

“But when it comes to things like interconnect, we have certainly honored everything that we originally agreed upon with Etisalat. After meeting with them several times, I have kind of gotten the sense that they want to come in and set the rules. We have made it clear that we will honor everything that we have signed on, but we will not change the design of our network for the newcomer.”

“There is a great deal of misconception about health hazards Sometimes, we will try to put a tower in and have people come out and threaten our contractors with machetes.”

What it boils down to, Shalaby claims, is that Etisalat “wanted to interconnect and roam on a selective basis, and it just doesn’t work that way. An agreement had already been made with the government’s blessing that split Egypt geographically. They could roam on our network in certain parts of the country and on the second network in other parts. Then they came up with the idea that they wanted to pick and chose. On that point all three of the other parties involved — Mobinil, Vodafone and the government — agreed that it would not work,” explains Shalaby.

“These are the kinds of details that people don’t understand and they just pass off the criticism that we are hardnosed.”

Shalaby attributes the delays Etisalat experienced to the upstart having underestimated the difficulties of site acquisition and rolling out their network. “Even we are experiencing difficulties, and we are eight to nine years into the plan,” says Shalaby. “It is becoming progressively more difficult to acquire sites. There is a great deal of misconception about health hazards, not only in the residential areas, but even in rural areas in the Delta and Upper Egypt. Sometimes, we will try to put a tower in and have people come out and threaten our contractors with machetes. I now have a complete team going out from province to province in clubs, universities and so on to try and educate.”

In addition to the LE 16.7 billion pounds that Etisalat threw down to acquire its license, it has spent LE 2 billion on network infrastructure and plans to spend another LE 8-10 billion in the coming three years. Regardless of how expensive and arduous a task it has been to roll out, El-Abdouli thinks that it is well worth the cost.

“I truly feel that we paid what the license was worth in a market with lots of potential like Egypt,” the Etisalat CEO says. “We have invested in building everything from scratch, there are no legacy networks, and all the equipment is brand new. This has given us an advantage in terms of quality and voice clarity. Contrary to the rumors that have been circulating, the launch of our network has had no negative effect on the other two networks. Any problems that they have encountered during the past week are entirely their own,” he laughs.

The Competition Intensifies

Mobinil and Vodafone used the three-month delay in Etisalat’s launch to their advantage. By the end of February, Mobinil broke the 10 million subscriber mark; by May, it had topped 11 million. Vodafone announced its own 10 million subscriber milestone on the exact date Etisalat launched.

Both companies introduced highly competitive packages and substantial changes to validity periods (more on those in a moment) to lure new subscribers.

“We had 8.4 million as of the end of December, 9.96 million at the end of April and we hit 10 million on the first of May,” says Gray. “We didn’t plan it to coincide with anything, it just turned out that way, so this has actually been a very exciting time for us,” he adds.

Shalaby is equally upfront: “We have really made use of the past few months by continuing to work very hard, going after more customers, introducing attractive offers and improving the quality of our network so that the new customers we acquire stay,” the Mobinil chief says.

“I think the process actually began back in 2004,” Gray says, “when the economy started to pick up. Since that time, both ourselves and Mobinil have brought prices down. What we have done is effectively make it easier to get a line. Over time, as the markets got bigger, we have been able to give better value to the customer by making it lower priced to have and keep a line,” says Gray.

The vast majority of subscribers on all three networks are now prepaid, which has translated into a significant drop in the average revenue per user (ARPU), the key industry metric. In fact, postpaid customers account for only 6-7% of Vodafone’s subscriber base.

For Mobinil, with 9-million-plus prepaid subscribers, ARPU dropped by 18% last year.

“This was expected,” says Shalaby. “Any time you expand your base, all the high-revenue users are already hooked up. The margins are certainly lower with new subscribers.” Shalaby believes that increasing ARPU for the prepaid growth segment of the market will come through non-traditional, non-voice services. Services including ring-back tones, for example, have been hugely successful for the two incumbents.

“We have also introduced a regional tariff with lower rates if you call within your province, excluding Cairo and Alexandria, of course, where we have the most congestion,” Shalaby says. “We have youth tariffs that offer youth discounted rates after midnight and on SMSes. For the business community, we are going to have a friends and family tariff which will allow users to have access to four or five numbers at very discounted rates or maybe have unlimited usage on those numbers for a monthly fee.”

Once a tariff is approved by the NTRA at the request of any one of the operators, the others can just notify the regulator that they intend to follow suit.

“This has typically happened to us over and over,” Shalaby says, “most recently it has been with the lifetime validity offer, which now makes it simpler for prepaid customers to keep a line active. All they need to do is make a call or send an SMS once every quarter to keep the line running regardless of the balance on the scratch card. There is no expiry date anymore.

“Vodafone now offers lifetime validity as well,” he continues, “but if we are talking about first-to-market advantage, this has had a very significant market impact for us. We saw large subscriber growth following the introduction of this offer in February and March.”

Vodafone, meanwhile, is looking at a first-to-market advantage with a potentially game-changing technology: Vodafone Cash, which is being executed in cooperation with HSBC. It’s nothing short of the introduction of the digital wallet of tomorrow.

“We think this is probably the most exciting development for the Egyptian population in the last couple of years,” says Gray. “This is a product that can be of use to everyone. If you work in Cairo and want to send money back to your family in Tanta, for example, instead of giving an envelop to the guy at the Superjet you can send it on your phone and the recipient can collect the cash at the other end. It will allow our subscribers to transfer money electronically by simply sending an SMS. Money may then be retrieved at any ATM using the 123 [network] card that you receive upon registering for Vodafone Cash,” he adds.

Vodafone Cash grew out of Vodafone’s successful balance-transfer mechanism through which subscribers can transfer credit to another user. There are currently 6 million Vodafone subscribers who use balance transfer, the largest implementation of the service for Vodafone worldwide.

The next step for Vodafone Cash — admittedly months, perhaps years down the road — is for the mobile phone to converge with your wallet. Need to pay for your groceries? Just do it through Vodafone Cash.

None of which is to say that any of the competitors are taking their eyes off today’s basics: “What you have to do to be successful in any market place is to deliver quality and relevant products at competitive prices for each individual customer,” Gray says. “Delivering overall quality is of the utmost importance now that the competition has been upped a notch. If you want to make a call you have to be able to make it. The network cannot be congested. And of course you have to offer customers good voice quality, this is always our first priority,” says Gray.

Competing for Human Resources

As far back as September of last year, the market was buzzing with rumors about Etisalat’s aggressive recruitment of local talent. Word had it that the cash-rich Emarati telecom was offering astronomical packages that were setting the local industry’s salary scale askew.

Thousands of CV’s poured in. Naturally, many of those who were hired during the first wave of recruitment came from Vodafone and Mobinil, a development that left a bitter taste in the mouths of senior management at both companies long before the actual competition for subscribers began.

Shalaby admits that Mobinil lost over 50 employees to Etisalat, while Vodafone says it lost less than 1% of its personnel roster, or about 30 staffers.

“They kind of attacked the mid-section of the company, no one from upper management has left,” says Shalaby. “The problem is that everyone at Mobinil is bound by a non-compete. Legally, our former employees are not allowed to work for a competitor in Egypt for one full year, and we have notified Etisalat of that requirement. We currently have a number of outstanding lawsuits against some of the people who left us.”

“There are a good number of employees here who came from one of the two incumbents, but I wouldn’t say most of them did,” says El-Abdouli. “The ones we did take came from middle and lower management. These were people who were looking for career advancement and better salaries, and I believe that they have a right to do so. Creating competition in the country does not only mean competition on the customer side,” he adds.

El-Abdouli claims that the company was in a tight spot: With the time constraints involved, he needed to hire people with experience, and that meant sourcing from the incumbents.

“We know that not only the incumbents but other IT companies in Egypt who have lost employees to us have taken offense, but our only other alternative would have been to hire non-Egyptians, which we did not want to do,” El-Abdouli says. “In the future, we would be happy to cooperate with anyone in the industry who is seeking a candidate for a critical position. We can help them to fill that position.”

Etisalat has 800 on staff so far. By the end of the year, El-Abdouli hopes to have more than 1,500 and ultimately 2,500-3,000 once the network is complete and nearing the 10 million subscriber mark.

“We do have some Emaratis and other nationalities working in the company, but these are mainly teams from our mother company who were sent here for the start-up phase and will eventually move on to other operations in other countries. So 98% of our workforce is Egyptian. In terms of salary scales, I think that contrary to the rumors, we are in line with other companies in this industry. Salaries are not the primary reason that people come to us. Etisalat has a good culture. I think it is mainly career development that we offer to our employees. Because we are a new company, we are flexible in that respect, and that’s why we have been attracting so many young people.”

Price Wars

El-Abdouli says Egypt is by far the toughest, most competitive market of any in which he has worked, particularly when compared with the UAE and Saudi Arabia. In anticipation of Etisalat’s arrival, the incumbents have come up with creative packages, abolished administrative fees and brought down prices to what they describe as “rock-bottom.”

But the Etisalat chief thinks there is still room for price reductions in the future.

“Both Orascom and Vodafone [the parent companies of Mobinil and Vodafone Egypt] are strong international companies. The applications, services and prices they offer are very competitive,” says El-Abdouli. “Because tax is inclusive in our prices, we are already about 15% cheaper than the others. When you buy a scratch card for LE10 or LE15, you actually get to make calls worth that amount. We are offering five minutes of free calls each month valid for life as well as the first 3 minutes of a video call for free,” says El-Abdouli. “That’s just for starters. Attractive packages for the business sector are currently being prepared and will be available in June.”

“We know that Etisalat will be going after some of our high-end customers,” Shalaby says. “To try and combat that a little we have recently introduced loyalty schemes with points redeemable for rewards —a bit like the airlines. But all we can really do to counter this is provide a better service. Of course Etisalat will have the advantage of a completely new and underutilized network. The more congested a network is, the lower the quality. So initially, they will have an advantage in that area.

“Newcomers to competitive markets such as this one sometimes give away free lines, but one company that recently adopted this strategy in Algeria went bankrupt. It’s a very dangerous thing to do. I was just with the regulator yesterday and we were discussing price wars. He did not think that it would come to that. We have to keep in mind that what goes down doesn’t go back up,” he adds.

(NTRA Executive Chairman Amr Badawi was traveling on business and unavailable for interview by press time.)

“We are fully aware that in the end, you have to make sure that the value of the market has not been destroyed,” El-Abdouli claims. “Lower prices may not necessarily be the best thing for the customer, because operators have to have the money to invest in order to provide a good service. If we start engaging in a price war, it’s the customer who is going to lose out in the end. Good quality service will be compromised.”

Gray, meanwhile, sees only modest room for prices to dip. Egypt already has some of the lowest per-minute calling rates in the world, he notes. “As you get more and more customers, you can spread the costs over more and more people. That’s why as the market gets bigger you can bring prices down. But our prices are already amongst the lowest in the world [39 piasters for prepaid and 30 piasters for postpaid]. You have to go to China and India to find comparably low prices,” Gray notes

“We are now in a fortunate position after having seen what Etisalat has offered in terms of prices at the launch,” he continues. “We will see how the market reacts and then make our move accordingly. It’s a different game now: Instead of a football match with two teams playing each other, there’s a third team and a third goal, which means everything changes.”

As the market’s new dynamics become clear in the next year or 18 months, all three operators will have to be more innovative and customer-focused as customer retention becomes an increasingly important factor in the competition.

“The standard measure of this market has been number of subscribers. In the months to come that may be a bit misleading. What we expect to happen is that a lot of customers will experiment with trying the service of a new operator by taking an additional line,” says Gray. “It’s just like when a new restaurant opens in Cairo and everyone wants to rush in and try it.”

Are You Ready for TV on Your Handset?

Mobinil, the only operator without a 3G license, says it will acquire one the moment there’s a business incentive to do so

Brand Wars

Top creative directors evaluate the big three

The launch of Egypt’s third mobile network has also ushered in the era of 3G. Today there are two companies, Etisalat and Vodafone, offering the Egyptian consumer 3G broadband services including novelties such as video calls, mobile TV, high-speed data connections (twice the speed of DSL) and music downloads.

“I think 3G will be even more successful here than it is in Europe because there is a segment of the market that is willing to pay for it,” says Etisalat Misr CEO Saleh El-Abdouli. “In the few days that we have launched, we are seeing traffic that is even better than the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Lots of people are calling to inquire about the service, how it works and how they can get it.”

How to get it is the easy part: All of the services are automatically available to both post- and prepaid subscribers who have 3G-enabled handsets and are willing to pay 75 piasters per minute for a video call or half a pound per minute to watch television on their handset.

Mobinil and Vodafone Egypt, meanwhile, differ on whether there is enough market demand for 3G to justify the high cost of the operating license. Ringing in at LE 3.4 billion, it is a set percentage of what Etisalat paid for its inclusive concession last summer.

“None of us expected the auction to go as high as it did,” says Vodafone Egypt CEO Ian Gray. “The final price gave us some real concerns, but we decided that if we want to continue to grow our business, the price of the license was the cost of being in business. It’s on that basis that we had to make the decision, and we think it’s good value for our shareholders.”

Gray says that even if data calls don’t take off immediately, his company needed the extra capacity in the 3G spectrum.

“The density of phone traffic in Cairo is very high, a bit like 26th of July Street in Zamalek,” he says. “The 2G network can be regarded as street level —slow with lots of traffic lights — while 3G is the 26th of July Mehwar [overpass] that runs straight through. At some point, someone had to make the decision to build the Mehwar and put something over the top. That’s the extra capacity with no traffic lights. That’s what 3G is for us. We decided that we were certainly going to need a lot of extra capacity in Cairo and Alexandria within the next 5 years.”

With nearly 800,000 Vodafone customers already in possession of 3G handsets, that’s 800,000 users who can automatically move to the “Mehwar,” leaving more space for other customers down below on the 2G network.

For Mobinil, the equation was a bit more complicated. During the past six months, the company has been embroiled in a heated battle with the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority concerning the use of EDGE technology. Mobinil classified EDGE as enhanced GPRS, which is technically second generation or “2.75G.” The NTRA declared that EDGE’s features —fast data speeds, good quality video streaming, etc — were too close to 3G technology to allow Mobinil to make use of it while their competitors paid a hefty price for what was essentially the same set of services offered at faster speeds.

“We decided to give up arguing the technicalities of EDGE in favor of getting additional numbering capacity from the NTRA,” explains Shalaby. Mobinil was recently granted one million additional numbers under the 018 code. “We did, however, reserve the right to return to arbitration should we choose to pursue the EDGE issue at a later time. But all of this debate is really about technology and data speeds. When it comes to user experience, on voice, there is no difference between 2G, 2.5G or 3G. Since 95% of our traffic is voice, we felt that we really did not need 3G at this point. For the little applications that we have for data, EDGE would make do thank you very much.”

Shalaby claims that there were only 500 or so Blackberries running on his EDGE network and a comparable number of i-mates.

In the absence of 3G, local analysts are seriously questioning Mobinil’s ability to compete with the other two networks. In February, after Mobinil released financial results for 2006 that saw both falling margins and revenues grow at about 50% of the clip that Vodafone Egypt’s climbed, leading investment bank Beltone Financial issued a “reduce” recommendation in the belief that Mobinil’s “wait and see attitude” regarding 3G is a gamble.

“He who laughs last laughs best,” counters Shalaby. “Anytime that there is a new operator, new competition or a new operating environment, it means that you have to spend more on your capex and drop your prices. Your EBITDA suffers in response but then once its business as usual it picks up again. I trust that we are on the right path. We have invested a lot in expanding our network and we will get 3G at some point in time. I think we will need it if not for the higher quality video, which is not a very financially viable application, then for more spectrum — extra capacity on voice.

“In the short term,” he says, “we don’t see our ability to compete being compromised in any way because we don’t have 3G. There may be some impact initially because of the novelty of the services and there is a small segment of the population which will genuinely benefit from 3G, but we just felt that the numbers wouldn’t bear out the cost of acquiring the license at this point.”

When the numbers do add up, Shalaby just might be able to reap the benefits of being able to jump into a ready-made market that he did not have to suffer to create. Vodafone and Etisalat are, however, banking on just the opposite. With the flashy new services they now have on offer, they hope to move far enough ahead of Mobinil to make it impossible for today’s market leader to catch up later on.

First Impressions

Red. In advertising, we spend a lot of time creating an identity. When you tell me yellow, I think of Lipton, because I used to work for Lipton. Whenever you tell me blue, I tell you Pepsi. Whenever you tell me red, I think of Vodafone, not Coca Cola. I hope the community feels the same way because [] a big part of branding is making sure the community connects with the color.” — A.Z.

“I think that it’s a foreign-Egyptian mobile company. They’re foreign, but they try to be Egyptian.” — I.S.

“I think of football.” — A.F.

How is Vodafone positioned today?

“[Concerning the last ad for 3G], this is not the Vodafone way, this is the Tarek Nour way. He either does a jingle or gets celebrities. The problem with Vodafone is that they are number one worldwide, but they have this problem: They think Egyptians don’t like them and that the Egyptian people think they’re stealing from them. [] They need to be cool and shouldn’t be afraid to go to the humor side.” — A.Z.

“They don’t communicate with the Egyptian people and don’t give them what they need. They try to get closer in a foreign way. For example, they used Myriam Fares, who is not Egyptian [] When Vodafone attempts to target the majority of the population, they get a Lebanese model dressed up in Egyptian clothing. When it comes to their services, though, they’re above the rest.” — I.S.

“Vodafone focuses a lot on their image. They care a lot more about their image than they do about their advertisements and who they’re trying to target. Vodafone is now starting to spend more than Mobinil, but it was expected.” — N.E.S.

“Red is hot and energetic. They have a strong international identity and therefore [people] expect more of them. Their color is the strongest [] I feel that they’re spontaneous. It’s easy to understand what they want to say. They speak a simple language and they are one of the best brands worldwide. Still, their application is not always consistent. Markets should change, but brands shouldn’t, ever. By the way, ‘Ana Vodaphone’ [in their recent campaign] sounds amazingly branded.” — A.F.

First Impressions:

When they tell me something like you have lifetime validity, I know that there are certain instances when this isn’t true.” — A.Z.

“I remember when they first started, they used Hakim and he was able to get close to the people. Mobinil has been able to give the Egyptian people their needs. When you think Mobinil, you think it’s the Egyptian network.” — I.S.

“I think of their service.” — N.E.S.

“The Pyramids come to mind.” — A.F.

How is Mobinil positioned today?

“Mobinil always has the edge. Mobinil uses an old network and has nothing, but they’re doing a good job with advertising. They are also a local brand and so they can do whatever they want. The Mobinil network cannot support 3G network — Sawiris even said this. They would have to change the entire network.” — A.Z.

“Mobinil is closer to the people. Mobinil uses terminology that the majority of the population uses. They’ve come up with some great lines that are still remembered until now such as “Beebo fara’aa Gigi” [a memorable ad that showed women gossiping, in typically colloquial Egyptian style, about the breakup of “Beebo” and “Gigi”]. Mobinil are able to move the Egyptian people and are able to connect with their senses.” — I.S.

“Mobinil’s image isn’t as great, but they’re a local network that knows how to speak to the people. Mobinil is based on the mass market. They play with the fact that the majority of the people want prepaid cards that can recharge their LE 300 phone with LE 5 or LE 10.” — N.E.S.

“Mobinil is more creative. After Mobinil’s facelift, it changed a lot of the brand identity — it’s now one of those powerful brands you can recognize through touch, sound and light. They seem more emotional and warm. I feel that with Mobinil, they are pioneers. They lead the market and they’re nationalistic. The brand language is inspired by Egyptian speech. They may be simple, but at least they’re not imitating. You feel that you’re proud to be a Mobinil customer The color orange is Egyptian and is fresh and warm.” — A.F.

First Impressions:

When I think of Etisalat, I think of a mirror-image. I don’t think that they’ve provided anything new from what Vodafone and Mobinil are already providing. They may have provided 3G first, but within 72 hours, Vodafone had launched as well. The only new thing they did was [make it possible to] book your number.” — I.S.

“I think of the new generation.” — N.E.S.

“When I think of Etisalat, I think of Dubai/the Gulf.” — A.F.

Critique of their ads/general views of the network branding:

“Etisalat: now after they launched, they have many edges they are trying to play on — [like] tax-free and 3G. Any new operator has the upper hand. It is in their favor. They will play on phone credit or the prepaid card, because people who have lines are loyal. [] Until now, I don’t know what their selling line or promise is. What is Etisalat? Mobinil is ‘Communicate from the heart.’ Vodafone is ‘Don’t miss a moment.’ They need a slogan from the beginning.” — A.Z.

“Etisalat hasn’t created an impact, yet. They will have a role in the future, but the people haven’t benefited from them until now. They haven’t provided us with anything new. A very small segment of the society will be able to use 3.5G. They’re targeting people who change their mobile phones every six months and often download music. Etisalat looks like they’re heading in the same way as Vodafone. They haven’t been targeting the [everyday] Egyptian man.” — I.S.

“The new generation they’re targeting has a very limited audience. They’re targeting the business people who don’t have time to watch TV at home, and youth. When I say youth, I mean the generation of the iPod. I remember when the movie Al-Nazer first came out and El-Lemby made his debut, he said that he loved a girl but she left him for ‘one of those guys that carries a mobile phone,’ and this concept was only a few years ago.” — N.E.S.

“When I first think of Etisalat, I think of a brand that has a unique icon. Regarding their identity, Etisalat is not as strong as what was expected. They are not as fresh as what was expected []. They didn’t create a personality or a message and started selling right away, maybe it’s still early to judge, but that what I feel so far. They are not consistent when it comes to the language because they use both slang and formal. You also can’t tell who their target is. They are missing their opportunity. They need to establish a brand identity before talking to people. It’s [ultimately] about communication and a missing communication with their target.” — A.F.

Name: Ali Zein

Agency: IMPACT BBDO

Term: 1.5 years

Biggest/most challenging campaign:

“Liban Lait. We managed to change the habit of Lebanese people in 1996 to no longer use fresh milk and to accept the UHT concept.

We managed to educate the community and we scored big time.”

Name: Ismail Sharaf El Din

Agency: Publicis Graphics

Term: 1 year

Biggest/most challenging campaign:

“My biggest campaign was the Nestle Pure Life. We worked for a long period of time. All of the smallest details had to be taken into consideration and I believe it was a success.”

Name: Abeer Farid

Agency: ADVISION

Term: 13 years

Biggest/most challenging campaign:

“One of the hardest campaigns was IraqNa, the mobile operator in Iraq. We had to create a creative brand identity and launch, and we worked on very short deadline. The biggest challenge was that none of us were in Iraq and had to do all of our work from here.”

Name: Nader El Sayed

Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi

Term: 1.5 years

Biggest/most challenging campaign:

“Nescafe was my biggest campaign. We first introduced Nescafe to the Egyptian market after they were used to Turkish coffee and I came up with “Sabahak Nescafe.” It was a difficult campaign because we had to change people who drink tea and Turkish coffee to coffeeit was a hard shift for people.”

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