CAIRO: Telecom Egypt's net profit decreased 15 percent in the second quarter of this year, the company reported on Monday. “The functioning environment is not back to its norm in Egypt yet,” said Aqel Bashir, CEO of Egypt's land-line operator, in a statement. He added that even though the curfew was lifted this past June, tourism and business are still at low levels. The company's collective net profit was 826 million Egyptian pounds during the last three month, while last year's numbers for the same period reached 971 million Egyptian pounds. This year's collective profit has reached 2.6 billion pounds while last year's collective profit reached 2.7 billion. Experts say the company is most probably losing its customers to mobile companies. In a move to cut its loses, Telecom Egypt decided last month to cancel its pager services completely by the end of the year. Telecom Egypt owns 45 percent of Vodafone Egypt but has no administrative say over the company. Vodafone Egypt reported high profits for the last quarter of the year, mostly due to Mobinil's customers transferring their services. Many Mobinil users switched to Vodafone after Naguib Sawiris, founder of Mobinil and Orascom Telecom chief published controversial cartoons on his personal Twitter account that many thought were insulting to Islam. Vodafone users have increased to reach 34 million clients through the end of June. However, Telecom Egypt has earned 233 million Egyptian pounds from its shares in Vodafone. Telecom Egypt said in July that it aspires to own a mobile provider license and is in negotiations with the National Committee of Telecommunications in the country for the fourth license expected early next year. BM
