CAIRO: Vodafone will close its Cairo call center and move to New Zealand, announced the company on Thursday. The Cairo call center managed 25 percent of Vodafone New Zealand's total helpline calls since 2007 and employed 100 locals. The center was closed for a month during the unrest that brought former President Hosni Mubarak's resignation, but the transfer was decided according to “changing customer needs,” said Kelly Moore, Vodafone Director of Service. “With more and more customers now having their mobile and fixed telecommunications with Vodafone, they want a consistent experience across both our mobile and fixed contact centers. Consolidating our customer management in New Zealand enables us to do that,” added Moore. The Cairo call centre staff have been told to stay at home, as “most of their work involved nightshifts, at which time a curfew was in force,” said Moore. Staff working in Cairo have been evacuated with their families, said Tom Chignell, Vodafone Corporate Affairs. Maged Osman, Egyptian Minister of Communications and IT, met Vittorio Colao, Vodafone CEO, last week in order to discuss the company's future investments in Egypt. Colao assured Vodafone's ‘keen interest' in maintaining its partnership with Egypt, and reiterated its commitment to boosting investments in Egypt in the next period. The number of mobile phone subscriptions in Egypt increased by 27.7 percent up from a year earlier, up to 70.66 million customers, according to government data. Egypt's three mobile operators Etisalat, Mobinil and Vodafone provided an estimated 55.352 million customers. Vodafone is the world's largest mobile telephone company. BM
