A sharp drop in tourism affected revenues of Telecom Egypt, mostly regarding receipts from international calls, said the vice president of Telecom Egypt. Tarik Abou Alam said that dialed international phone calls fell 10 percent due to the decline in tourism. The drop led to losses for companies working in the communication sector, he added. Abou Alam said that his company held agreements with mobile operators in a number of countries that aim to reduce the number of calls bypassing the network, and consequently undercut the company's revenue. Telecom Egypt also faces a number of challenges as a result of competition with mobile service providers, forcing the company reduce prices to their lowest level ever. Telecom Egypt's operates 8.9 million landlines, according to Egypt's Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technology, while nationwide mobile subscribers number 74.5 million.
