Egypt's state-owned landline operator Telecom Egypt announced on Sunday that it lost some 86 million Egyptian pounds as a result of network related damages between January 1 through May 31 this year. Much of those losses, the company said, were directly related to the 18 days of protests that took down the former government of Hosni Mubarak on February 11. In a press statement, Telecom Egypt reported that the losses to fixed assets were 62.76 million Egyptian pounds, or 0.45 percent of its total net fixed assets through March 2011. The company also said this included 30 million Egyptian pounds in damages, thefts and fires and 32.78 million Egyptian pounds as a result of having to replace copper and fiber optic cables across their network. In April and May of this year, the company said that other cable losses totaled 22.81 million Egyptian pounds. Despite the reported losses, observers and analysts in Egypt believe it will not adversely affect the company's future outlook, especially as Telecom Egypt looks to enter the mobile sector when the government offers the fourth mobile license. Leading technology analyst company Beltone Financial said in a statement that “it was still unclear how the losses would be accounted for on company income statements and whether they would be booked as a single entry at the end of 2011 or smoothed over different quarters of the year.” BM
