Senior source in the Egyptian Telecom Ministry have asserted that the three mobile phone operators, Vodafone, Mobinil and Etisalat had not deliberately violated consumer protection rules through its recent offerings. The sources have informed Amwal Al Ghad that the three mobile operators were not intentionally told the users about the real prices of the short messages ‘1pound'. Consumer Protection Agency(CPA), has referred Vodafone Egypt and Etisalat Egypt to the country's public prosecutor for investigations, saying that the telco firm has encouraged its clients to send messages to take part in a competition to win EGP 30.000 in return for paying one Egyptian pound per message without obtaining a prior license from the competent authorities. Mr. Atef Jacob - Head Consumer Protection Agency - has asserted that the referral decision came after the CPA has received a complaint from a client who said he received a message about chances of winning EGP 10,000 in case of making or receiving international calls but he had to subscribe first through pressing the code * # 5353 in return for one Egyptian pound. He added that CPA has addressed the Ministry of Solidarity for being the competent party to issue the licenses of competitions and to supervise on the checkout process, to make the best use of Vodafone's receiving licenses from the Ministry started from the last October11 and it extends for only one month, without referring to any costs but the licenses are stating that the participation of this lottery is free.
