Olaf Swantee, senior executive vice-president for France Telecom, tells Niveen Wahish Egypt remains a fast-growing mobile communications market Unlike Vodafone or Etisalat, daughter company of France Telecom Orange is not a readily recognisable brand in Egypt's mobile phone market. It is surprising that what the average mobile phone subscriber probably doesn't know is that Orange in fact owns 71.25 per cent of MobiNil Telecommunications, which in turn owns 51 per cent of the Egyptian Company for Mobile Services. The remaining 28.75 per cent of MobiNil's shares are owned by Orascom Telecom Holdings. Yet despite Orange's strong hold on MobiNil, Senior Executive Vice-President in charge of Personal Communication Services and operations in the United Kingdom, Europe and the Middle East for France Telecom Olaf Swantee does not actually see a need to re-brand MobiNil into Orange. "MobiNil has a strong brand name in the market. It shows that we are very local," Swantee tells Al-Ahram Weekly. In fact, the company is spending four per cent of its revenue in advertising and marketing in total to instil that idea. Although he admitted that this budget is slightly more than they would spend in other markets, "we are working in a fast- growing market with many new customers coming in. We have to spend a little more on advertising or marketing," he said. He also denied rumours that Orange intends on taking over its partner's share. "We are genuinely happy with our business partners. We have fantastic growth. We went from 16 million to 19 million subscribers in the first 10 months of this year," Swantee explained. He also praised the fact that his partners have much experience in emerging markets. "They know how to perform well in the segments of the market that are very sensitive," he said. In the meantime, Orange's strong point, he said, is in the value side of things, such as the business-to-business arena and in servicing contract customers. On the often-raised criticism of poor quality service, Swantee admitted that it was a challenge, adding that "we have invested some LE3.6 billion in a new network to improve the service." Meanwhile, he believes that despite the presence of three mobile phone companies in the Egyptian market, there is still a one to one- and-a-half year opportunity to grow in the regions, outside Cairo and Alexandria. "In some of the regions there are still quite a few who are not using mobile communication," Swantee said. Note, however, that he does not see growth only in terms of the number of subscribers. He believes he could boost revenue by expanding the services offered to existing customers to include Internet and television applications, including music and games. While choosing to stay out of the limelight where MobiNil is concerned, Orange intends to tap into other zones of the Egyptian market. He said that Orange Business Services (OBS), a company that provides communications services to large global companies, will soon set up shop in Egypt. "This is different from our mobile business. We are not competing with any Egyptian companies in this line of business. Internationally we are competing with companies such as British Telecom," Swantee told the Weekly. He added that Orange has decided to base OBS in Egypt because "we are committed to Egypt and believe in the long- term strength of the country." He went on to say that Egypt has a strong skilled labour force in the areas of information technology and communications. To him the choice of Egypt also forms a part of a strategy whereby Orange can make sure that it can provide customers everywhere with its services and be present in every time zone and every region. As if to enforce this belief, earlier this year, Orange opened a research lab for telecommunications technology in Egypt. The company has 18 such labs around the world. "We have opened one in Egypt to be close to a fast-growing market and to be able to use technology that has been developed in Egypt, in other markets," Swantee said. Meanwhile, he added that Orange will not forego the opportunity to tap into the fixed line business in Egypt. He said Orange was in fact interested in bidding for Egypt's second fixed network, before the opportunity was postponed. Orange is also interested in applying for the international gateway licence once it becomes available. Right now Orange remains dependent on Telecom Egypt for its international services. "We are renegotiating the rates, but we are also demanding a better service," he said.
