CAIRO: Vodafone Group said on Thursday that it was forced to send mobile phone text messages by the Egyptian government, urging people to confront “traitors and criminals” as demonstrators demanded the end of President Hosni Mubarak. The Egyptian authorities can instruct the local mobile network operators, which also include Etisalat and Mobinil, to send messages under emergency power provisions, Vodafone said today. The messages were not written by the mobile-phone operator, it said. “The Armed Forces urge Egypt's loyal men to confront the traitors and the criminals and to protect our families, our honor and our precious Egypt,” said a text message sent on Vodafone's network on February 1. Mobile phone voice services at units of Vodafone and Mobinil were restored Jan. 29, after one day of being cut off, however, SMS was still halted in Egypt for the 8th day in a row. The world's biggest mobile-phone operator has protested to the authorities that the current situation is “unacceptable,” Vodafone said in a statement, adding that “it has made it clear that all messages should be transparent and clearly attributable to the originator.” According to AP, Vodafone said the texts had been sent “since the start of the protests.” Vodafone was one of the operators that shut down voice services within Egypt on Friday after an order from Egyptian authorities. But in another statement on its website, the company says it had little choice in this matter since the Egyptian government has the ability to block such services on its own. Voice services were quickly restored Saturday, Vodafone says as a kind of apology, it offers credits for its customers and until the crisis is over. BM
