The telecommunications row involving the Egyptian mobile operator Mobinil escalated when one of its competitors, Etisalat, instructed customers to make a complaint with the national telecom regulator, the Egyptian Arabic daily al-Shorouk reported Wednesday. Etisalat instructed customers who had difficulty transferring their numbers between customers to file a complaint with the National Telecom Regulatory Authority (NTRA) Earlier Mobinil, officially the Egyptian Company for Mobile Services, also leveled accusations against the NTRA, saying it was “complicating its stance in the market” by facilitating the transfers. The NTRA said there is no legal mechanism for them to prevent the transfers. The CEO of Mobinil, Said Hassan Mobinil Qabbani denied that it is preventing subscribers from switching, and that the backlog is due to the increased amount of customers seeking to switch. Qabbani added that transfers typically take a week to ten days, during which Mobinil is working to convince subscribers to stay. Mobinil has been embroiled in a public scandal since its owner, Naguib al-Sawiris, posted a picture of Mickey and Minnie mouse in conservative Islamic dress on the social networking service Twitter. When asked to comment on the row, Qabbani pointed to the scandal, saying “the majority of decisions to change are not connected to the quality of service that the company provides, but that they are influenced by biased rumors.” BM
