Q: What are the areas of business that have seen growth and what areas have seen slower growth?
Dowidar: Business this year has been quite flat compared to the previous year, as we had opposing forces. We’ve seen an acceleration in growth in internet services as the revolution was started on Facebook and Twitter, so more people are interested in these services than ever before. We’ve also seen considerable growth in data, possibly higher than what we have seen in previous years. On the other hand, price decline in voice services continue and therefore there was almost no growth in voice at all. There was a hit on roaming revenues, given that the number of tourists has decreased significantly.

Q: Have you suffered more on the business customer side or the retail side?
Dowidar: It’s equal: On the business side we have seen, for example, travel agencies and hotels have reduced their spending because of course they don’t have enough business; on the retail consumer side, I don’t think that people have reduced spending per se, but we have a very competitive market and prices have continued to decline. The price decline has eaten away at the increase in the number of subscribers.

Q: How significant is the growth in the mobile internet market? And after the revolution, did you notice consumption coming from different segments of society?
Dowidar: There are more people that are using mobile internet than before; almost 20% of our subscribers use mobile internet now. Most new phones now have applications for Facebook and Twitter so it’s even easier than before. What you will also notice is that the older age group that felt they missed out on something during the revolution by not being connected has started to become more engaged online. Also, people who did not have a strong command of the English language used to shy away from the internet, but now with Arabic content growing, more people are using the internet in Arabic. We are trying to push for the creation of more Arabic content as well. We have to have content that is suitable for everyone.

Q: How did telecom companies feel towards the blackout?
Dowidar: This was probably one of the worst mistakes made by the previous regime; it inflamed the people further.

On the business side, I think it served as a wake-up call for the [regulators] to change the law to prevent any regime from using the same provisions in the existing law in the future. At the same time, this was a tragic time for us, because this halted our business. Our customers [were] not able to make phone calls because of a legal order by the regime […] and we strongly objected to [this] at the time.

Q: Is it a challenge to bring internet to certain regions of Egypt? Do you have the infrastructure?
Dowidar: I think this is one of the biggest challenges we have over-all, and that is to transform the internet in Egypt. The telecom regulator has come up with a five-year plan known as eMisr to get high-speed internet to all users throughout the country. One of the biggest barriers to this is the national infrastructure: At the end of the day, even though Egypt has three mobile operators and one fixed-line operator, we are all relying on the fixed infrastructure of Telecom Egypt, which I think needs a lot of investment in the next few years. While we continue to work hard with them, an alternative infrastructure provider would improve internet services.
 
Q: Would you describe Vodafone’s strategy right now as aggressive or cautious?
Dowidar: It’s optimistic. We are optimistic that the market will turn this corner. Therefore we have continued our investments in data services and network quality throughout the year, to make sure that when the market regains normalcy next year, we will be ready to serve that market and to recover part of the value in the market.

Q: What is your outlook for 2012?
Dowidar: I believe that if we manage to finish parliamentary elections and get a grip on security, we can start to see growth again in 2012. For us the key to growth is the return of tourism. If this segment is revived, that will definitely help our revenues in the coming year. bt