The Egyptian mobile operator Mobinil has reported a 93.6 per cent decline in its first-quarter profit to 22.7 million Egyptian pounds ($3.82 million), due to political unrest in its domestic market.
Revenues fell 4.5 per cent to 2.43 billion pounds, although total subscribers were up 16.2 per cent year-on-year, according to reports.
Alex Shalaby, chairman of Mobinil, warned of an 'impact' on revenues earlier today at a conference in Abu Dhabi organised by the SAMENA Telecommunications Council.
He was not at the time able to disclose specifics about the results, but the general mood was apparent.
Mr Shalaby said political unrest had hit Mobinil's revenues in the first quarter, particularly in revenues from roaming services, used primarily by tourists and business travellers.
"That is probably one of the most hard-hit parts of our revenue stream. It's roughly 10 per cent of our revenue stream," said Mr Shalaby. "So that has been impacted to a fairly large extent, because it is largely affected by tourism."
A complete 24-hour shutdown of the mobile network also hit the firm, while internet services were disrupted for even longer. "On the internet, it was one week. We even had to compensate our customers, to make up for the inconvenience," said Mr Shalaby.
Mobinil leads the mobile-phone market in Egypt, with more than 30 million subscribers. It expects growth in its subscriber base to slow this year. "We've passed the double-digit [growth in subscriber numbers]. Now we're in single-digit," said Mr Shalaby.
However, brighter news is on the horizon. Mr Shalaby said the company is pressing ahead with a long-delayed plan to launch a mobile-phone banking service in Egypt.
"I really don't foresee any additional delays. I think it's going to happen during the first half of this year," said Mr Shalaby.
"It will provide banking services to those that are unbanked: Sending money to a son or a daughter in a different town... Anything that you can do through your bank, you should be able to do on your mobile."