Business Monitor International released a report detailing the Egyptian Telecommunications market for the second quarter of 2011. The report mostly contains data describing the last quarter of 2010, painting a detailed picture of the Egyptian telecommunications market before the onset of unrest that damaged major telecommunications carriers. According to the report, the Egyptian mobile market in 2009 grew by 27%, to 70.7 million mobile subscribers at the end of 2010, translating to a penetration rate of 83.6 percent. Almost half of new customers subscribed in the last quarter of 2010. Business monitor international attributed the steep rise in subscriptions to growing price competition. Vodafone Egypt added the most subscribers, taking 3 million. This further cemented its place as the leading mobile operator in Egypt, with 45 percent of the market share and just 31.8 million subscribers. The state-owned telecom company Telecom Egypt has a 44.7 percent stake in Vodafone Egypt, with 54.9 percent owned by Vodafone group. Mobinil, Vodafone's biggest competitor, saw its market share decrease to 42.8 percent despite adding 2.4 million new subscribers. Mobinil is owned by Orascom Telecom with and the French carrier Orange. Egypt's third carrier, operated by the Emirati firm, Etisalat, saw its market share increase to 12.3 percent with 1.4 million new mobile subscriptions. At this rate, Business Monitor International predicts that penetration rates will soon exceed 100 percent by the end of 2012, despite hits that the market took during ongoing unrest. Outside of the robust mobile market, fixed voice connections suffered negative growth. Internet use continued to increase to 22.8 million Egyptians online. BM
