Vodafone 'obliged' to suspend service in Egypt

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?