If you’re one of Vodafone’s 28 million customers in Egypt — and you’re resident in one of the hotspot areas of the country demonstrating dissatisfaction with the Government — chances are, you might not have mobile service.
That’s right.
Vodafone Egypt has been ‘obliged to comply’ with the Government order.
AP/Businessweek reports:
Telecoms company Vodafone says the Egyptian government has ordered all mobile telephone operators to suspend services “in selected areas” of the country.
In a statement, the company says that “under Egyptian legislation the authorities have the right to issue such an order and we are obliged to comply with it.”
I’m not at all impressed.
I rely on my Vodafone service here in the UK. I’d be flipping outraged if the company decided to deactivate it’s services because the UK Government was in a flap.
I can’t imagine what I’d be thinking if I was an Egyptian paying for a service that has been suspended because my Government wanted it so.
I think it’s bad form on Vodafone’s part. Hugely bad form.
However I suspect it’s not an easy situation though, given that the Government — with all those tanks and guns — is currently in the position to threaten Vodafone’s business interests in the country if it didn’t comply.
At what point, then, does a billion-dollar global company like Vodafone say, ‘screw you,’ and keep its services live? Probably until the Egyptian Army arrive, I suppose.
Whatever your viewpoint on Egypt, you can’t help wondering that a Government that arbitrarily removes basic communications facilities from swathes of its population isn’t quite healthy.
I also have to point out that I understand it’s very easy to have an opinion when you’re living in a sleepy town in Buckinghamshire and when the height of daily frustration is a cancelled train.
What’s your view — was Vodafone right to play along with the Egyptian Government?