CAIRO: Vodafone Egypt denied what was reported by media outlets, citing an ABC cable news network report titled "The Wealth of Al Mubarak: $70 billion," saying that no member of the Mubarak family owns any part of the company.
An official spokesperson on behalf of Vodafone said that Vodafone Egypt’s current shareholders structure constitutes of Vodafone Group with 54.93 percent (Vodafone Europe B.V. 34.82 percent and Vodafone International Holdings B.V. 20.11 percent), Telecom Egypt 44.95 percent and a minority free float of 0.12 percent.
“The source confirms that Vodafone Egypt operates with complete transparency towards its valued customers, its reputable employees, its esteemed shareholders and towards the Egyptian community at large,” the telecom operator said in a statement.
The three telecom operators in the country came under a storm of criticism by Egyptians for turning off mobile services, which were restored Jan. 29. Short messaging services were only just restored on Feb. 5. They said they were ordered to do so by authorities.
Internet services were also shut down from Jan. 28 until Feb. 2.
On Thursday, Vodafone accused the Egyptian authorities of using its network to send pro-government text messages to its subscribers, without clear attribution, Reuters reported.
France Telecom said Mobinil was given similar orders, according to Bloomberg.
Vodafone said the Egyptian authorities had instructed the mobile networks of Mobinil, Etisalat and Vodafone to send messages to the people of Egypt and had been doing so since the protests broke out against the President Hosni Mubarak.
"Vodafone Group has protested to the authorities that the current situation regarding these messages is unacceptable," it said. "We have made clear that all messages should be transparent and clearly attributable to the originator."
