 |
Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 21 - 27 September 2000 Issue No. 500 
|
||
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
|
||
|
Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 21 - 27 September 2000 Issue No. 500
|
||
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
|
||
Egypt Elections Development Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Special Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Calling made easy
By Amira HoweidyAt last! Someone has actually come up with and implemented the idea of making Egypt's telephone directory available electronically. Under an agreement between Infosoft, a private company, and Egypt Telecom, the state-owned telephone company, 4.7 million home telephone numbers and 400,000 business numbers have been put on a CD ROM. And, very soon, the nation's directory will be available on the Internet.
The "Easy Call" electronic directory, which will comprise the nation's telephone numbers, addresses and Web sites if they exist, will be available for only LE15 on CD ROM next January. On 17 December, the directory will appear on the Easy Call Web site (www.easycallonline.com).
For millions of Egyptians who have long had to endure the inaccuracies and unreliable information provided by directory assistance, the new project is an ideal alternative. Just type in the first, middle and/or surname of the person you're looking for and unless their number is unlisted, you will get the correct telephone number and address.
To many, this is close to miraculous since access to accurate information in Egypt requires a lot of effort, patience and persistence -- a situation that hardly befits the "information age."
But this is only a manifestation of the proliferation of e-commerce in Egypt. For many years the most widespread form of e-commerce -- payment over the Internet by credit cards -- has remained extremely unpopular here. But suddenly, and perhaps ironically given the economic recession, every form of information technology-related business seems to be emerging.
Even the archaic national telephone company has finally abandoned its socialist persona, developed in the 1960s, and revamped its image. Not only was it represented by a sleek modern logo in last week's TV commercials, but part of its assets will be offered for sale very soon. Moreover, it now has a department for New Services and Marketing which is forging alliances with the private sector. The arrangement with Easy Call is just one example of such partnerships.
Indeed, according to Abdullah Abbas, of Egypt Telecom's New Services and Marketing department, the company has been "opening up" to the private sector since a presidential decree was issued in 1998 transforming the Egyptian Communications Authority into Egypt Telecom. Until the first private Mobile company began operating that same year, Egypt Telecom was running the mobile network. Says Abbas, "lately, we have begun to feel that since there is competition, the normal thing would be for us to enter it." Hence, Easy Call.
The private sector partner in this initiative, Infosoft, believes that the project will attract 20 million visitors to its site once it goes on-line. "We don't expect that only Egyptians will visit the Web site; anyone from anywhere in the world that needs to contact someone in Egypt may well visit the site," said Infosoft's Chairman Ahmed El-Hefnawi.
Directory assistance receives 200,000 calls per day between 11.00am and 7.00pm, meaning that it deals with approximately 60 million calls per year.
With such a much needed commodity in his hands, El-Hefnawi says he's been approached by numerous international bodies which are extremely interested in the project including Forbes magazine and the Library of Congress.
According to El-Hefnawy, his company has been working on the project for the past six years, costing approximately LE5 million so far. "The company will invest even more money [for the launch]," he explained.
To cover the costs of the expensive and arduous task of listing the nation's directory electronically and more importantly making it user friendly, the company has been targeting companies to advertise on Easy Call's CD and in the future, on its Web site. Most of the advertising on the sample CD distributed last Sunday was by Pfizer. Although the user has the option of clicking on the "skip" button when ads appear, one cannot avoid catching glimpses of them. More ads are expected to generate the desired revenues once the Web site is launched and the CD released.
Related sites:
Easy Call
