CAIRO: Spurred by Egypt's growing population, France Telecom Orange Group is eyeing the country for its future expansion plans. On Thursday, it opened the18th Orange Lab in Egypt's Smart Village, with a view to vie for the country s second fixed-line license. "Egypt is a fast growing market with 75 million inhabitants. It is a leading cultural and scientific center for the Middle East Africa region, explained Georges Penalver, the group's senior executive vice president. "[Operations] in Egypt will support all France Telecom Orange's operations across the region. Worth around 8.9 million euros in investments, France Telecom Group inaugurated Thursday its technology innovation center, placing further confidence in Egypt's evergreen telecommunications market. "Mobile activity has grown very quickly in Egypt, especially during the last five years. A few years ago, there were no mobiles. Now, there are millions, and the market is not yet saturated. Penetration rate will continue to grow, said Didier Lombard, the group's chief executive officer. "ICT is a sector that can bring high growth to development of the country. Presently, mobile market is very strong, [but] beyond that comes the Internet [as well as the fixed-line network], he added. "The market in a country like Egypt will grow very quickly. There are a lot of young people who have high demand for technology. Orange is the key brand of France Telecom, one of the world's leading telecommunications operators. France Telecom serves more than 167 million customers in five continents, two thirds of which are Orange customers. In 2006, Orange became the group's single brand for Internet, television and mobile services in most of the countries in which it operates. The group had consolidated sales of 51.7 billion euros in 2006 and 39.4 billion euros for the first nine months of 2007. Emerging markets are key to France Telecom Orange Group's aggressive growth strategy. These markets' contributions to the group's revenues have climbed from 10 to 13 percent in the last two years to reach 3.398 million euros in the first half of 2007. Besides Egypt, the group is also active in Jordan, Kuwait (in the near future), as well as in some African countries. "We will continue to invest in fast growing countries, [mainly] in the Middle East and Africa.depending on opportunities, Lombard pointed out, adding that the group had recently won a bid for a new license in Kenya. In Egypt, France Telecom Group has been present since 1998 with the launch of Egypt's first mobile operator Mobinil, of which the group is the main shareholder. Based on the group's records, Mobinil's capital expenditure investments currently exceed LE 11 million, while revenues grow at 31 percent year-on-year, hitting LE 6 million in the third quarter of 2007. "Mobinil's performance [in 2007] has been very impressive. Subscription rate grew to 10 million last April. Now, it has grown to 15 million, [recording] 50 percent increase in less than five months, said Lombard. The France Telecom Group has also been present in Egypt through Orange Business Services, serving approximately 150 local and multinational companies as well as around 50 airlines in Egypt, including Investment Bank EFG-Hermes and Egyptair. A global player in serving business clients, Orange Business Services was among the first licensed companies in Egypt in the field of international data, IP connectivity, and network-related services. The newly inaugurated Cairo Orange Lab aims to support the group's operations in Egypt (Mobinil and Orange Business Services) as well as enhance capacity to deliver innovative services across the entire region. The center will focus on developing low-cost network solutions tailored to the region's economic and cultural context. For example, it will localize France Telecom Group's services and integrate them into the region through developing voice applications in Arabic as well as arabization of content. "For example, one very famous service in Europe is SMS [short messages service]. When you want to do it in Arabic letters, it becomes very complicated, explained Lombard. "We have developed voicemail services, whereby you can leave an oral message instead of a text message. We [specifically] invented voice SMS for countries that have very complicated alphabets. Moreover, the center will develop mobile-based payment services specifically adapted for emerging markets. "A lot of customers [in the region] don't have bank accounts. That is why we will offer them the [option] to pay their bills via mobile phones. [That way], customers will no longer have to queue somewhere to pay their bills, he added. Committed to corporate social responsibility in Egypt, the Orange Foundation launched in 2006 a project to combat adult illiteracy in Sohag. The initial scope of the project covers 11 villages and will be extended to cover five additional villages this year. Moreover, the foundation recently implemented a program dedicated to helping street children in Cairo by giving them access to education and healthcare as well as rehabilitating them back into society.
