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Egypt's lower classes find solace in mobile phones despite economy [Bikya Masr (Egypt)]
[September 28, 2012]

Egypt's lower classes find solace in mobile phones despite economy [Bikya Masr (Egypt)]


(Bikya Masr (Egypt) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Mobile phone in Egypt has become lifeline between family members.

CAIRO: He sits slowly in his chair, moving his jacket to cover his aging body. The phone rings, and with youthful hands, Gabr reaches quickly into his pocket and pulls out an older Nokia mobile phone. Answering it quickly, he chats for a few minutes before returning to his jacket pocket. While blogging and Twitter may be a foreign concept for Gabr, an elderly bawwab, or doorman, in Cairo's Sayeda Zeinab area, he's had a mobile phone for years.



"How else would we be able to talk to my family and friends," his Upper Egyptian accent denoting his original home city of Aswan to the south. "We call each other every day and it is good for the mind." Despite Egypt's known economic downturn since a popular uprising ousted the former government of Hosni Mubarak in February 2011, mobile phone subscriptions have risen in the past 12 months, a new report said this month.

Mobile phone subscriptions in the country rose by 18 percent to 84.43 million last year. That means that barring a number of customers with more than one line, nearly all of Egypt's population have a mobile phone.


The report hints that the majority of Egyptians did not see the economic struggles that have faced the country over the past year as a hindrance toward their ability to use and have mobile phones.

Many observers see the uprising as having a direct play in increasing mobile subscriptions, as through mobiles and data plans, Egyptians have been able to maintain communications through their handsets.

"With all the violence and what is going on in Egypt in the past 6 months, I couldn't have managed without a phone and being on Twitter and other social networking sites to spread the word," said activist and telecom analyst Mohamed Kamel.

The government report stated that in December 2010, Egypt's three mobile operators – Etisalat Egypt, Mobinil and the Egyptian unit of Vodafone – had 70.66 million subscriptions.

Vodafone and Mobinil – controlled by Egypt's Sawiris family and France Telecom – have been competing fiercely for market leadership, with both companies claiming to be the top provider in the North African country.

Subscriptions now roughly equal the country's population and the companies are seeking to maintain revenue growth by encouraging customers to use more data services. Egypt is the Arab world's most populous country, with more than 80 million people.

Still, the numbers came as a surprise to many in the country, including Ahmed Naguib at the Egyptian stock market, who said that he believed Egyptians, while not spending money on other goods, "see their phones as an important means of survival and communication, which is very important for the people in this country." For Gabr and others like him, in the lower-middle-class or lower classes, communication is vital to their lives. Family is as important as the food they put on the table. Gabr said that growing up, no matter how far away from home he was, he always made time for his mother.

"Back then we had to send letters and I would always write, especially when I went to work in Cairo and my mother was back home. Then, when I could afford and got a phone in my home, I would probably call her at least every day or every two days," he said.

For him, the mobile phone is a natural progression of that communication, which has become an almost constant for Egyptians, rich and poor.

"We Egyptians talk to each other and are always thinking about family, so it is important that we all have one," he said, referring to his phone, smiling and waving it as he speaks.

For Egyptians, the mobile phone is more than technology. It is a device that enables family to maintain contact as the youth travel farther and farther away from home. Nora Yussif, a 22-year-old university student from an Upper Egypt village some one hour from Assuit, told Bikyamasr.com that without a phone, her family would not have allowed her to travel.

"They were very much against the idea, but when we talked, they decided that if we all had phones and could talk daily, it would be okay," said the Cairo University student in her final year.

"Technology might not be a big part of their life, but the mobile phone is a link to me and for many families it is the same," she added.

Despite the rise in mobile phone subscriptions in the post-uprising Egypt, the result has not translated into other technologies often touted by the revolution, especially the blogosphere.

Marwan Radwan, a former professor at Cairo University and now IT consultant with an international firm and researcher on Internet activities in Egypt, told Bikyamasr.com that through the past year, while Egyptians have continued to use their phone, the boosting of the Internet online writing community has grown at a regular pace.

"We saw an initial burst following the revolution, but still today, most Egyptians don't know what a blog is and why they would use it, because they don't have the money to have Internet at home," he argued.

Nahed, a 32-year-old mother of two, who went to the streets during the January 2011 street protests against Mubarak, has two phones, but didn't know what a blog was. "What is a blog I don't know this and never heard of it," she said.

But when asked about her two phones, she was adamant that it was important to her daily life. "I have one for just my family and another for my friends. Talking to the people I love is important and must be happening every day," she said, echoing Gabr's sentiments toward the phone.

Subscriptions for mobile phones are likely to continue to rise as modes of communication in Egypt continue to transition from fixed lines, but Radwan is firm that this should not be taken as a sign of a technological revolution.

"We are still a ways away from any such IT movement in the country. Egyptians want to stay in touch and they still use the traditional means of the phone as their source," he added.

BM (c) 2012 Bikya Masr Provided by Syndigate.info an Albawaba.com company

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