- FEBRUARY 3, 2011, 11:12 A.M. ET
Vodafone Says Egypt Forced Carriers to Send Messages
By SHEREEN EL GAZZAR And ADRIAN KERR
Vodafone Group PLC Thursday said the Egyptian authorities used emergency powers to instruct mobile operators to send text messages to Egyptian mobile users, the latest example of how communications in the country are being affected by the unrest.
"Under the emergency powers provisions of the Telecoms Act, the Egyptian authorities can instruct the mobile networks of Mobinil, Etisalat and Vodafone to send messages to the people of Egypt," Vodafone said in a statement on its website.
Vodafone, Egypt's largest carrier by subscribers, said the authorities had done so since the start of the protests in the country and that the messages weren't scripted by any of the operators.
"Vodafone Group has protested to the authorities that the current situation regarding these messages is unacceptable," the statement said. "We have made clear that all messages should be transparent and clearly attributable to the originator."
Despite SMS services overall being down across the country, subscribers of Etisalat Egypt, a subsidiary of U.A.E.-based Emirates Telecommunications Corp., Wednesday received Arabic-language SMS messages that read: 'To every mother, father, brother and sister, to every honorable citizen, take care of this country for this nation lasts forever.'
Another SMS message sent Tuesday across the network of Egyptian Co. for Mobile Services, or Mobinil, said: "This is a message from the Egyptian Armed Forces: Egyptian youth beware of rumors and listen to the voice of reason. Egypt is above everyone so protect it."
It wasn't clear how the messages were sent nor from where they originated, after Mobinil earlier Thursday confirmed that SMS services in Egypt remained down, a day after the state restored Internet services that had previously been cut amid the widespread political unrest.
Etisalat Egypt and Mobinil weren't immediately available to comment on the SMS issue. France Telecom, a shareholder in Mobinil, which it jointly owns with Orascom Telecom, also wasn't immediately available to comment.
Vodafone declined to comment beyond the statement posted on its website.
Late last week, Egypt took the unprecedented step of severing the majority of Internet connections and shutting down its cellphone services, with the cooperation of international firms.
Mobile voice services, however, were restored Saturday.
"We would like to make it clear that the authorities in Egypt have the technical capability to close our network, and if they had done so it would have taken much longer to restore services to our customers," Vodafone said at the time.
"It has been clear to us that there were no legal or practical options open to Vodafone, or any of the mobile operators in Egypt, but to comply with the demands of the authorities," Vodafone also said at the time the voice services were restored, adding that its other priority is the safety of its employees and "any action we take in Egypt will be judged in light of their continuing wellbeing."
—Ruth Bender in Paris, Lilly Vitorovich in London and Tamer El-Ghobashy in Cairo contributed to this report Write to Adrian Kerr at adrian.kerr@dowjones.com