1 - 7 February 2001
Issue No.519
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 1 - 7 February 2001 Issue No.519 |
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Current issue | Previous issue | Site map | ||
Through the grapevine
It used to take you years to get a phone line, but once this feat was accomplished, you had a reasonably priced service that worked sufficiently. But new technology and services promised to place the world at our fingertips, all by means of the humble phone, and we were happy -- until the bills came rolling in.
As communication goes high-tech and mobile, many things remain rooted in the ground line -- and these things cost money. Access to the Internet may be unlimited for a moderate set fee per month, but getting online still requires calling your local server. Mobile-to-mobile calls are dropping in price, but rates for calling a mobile from a landline are nothing to sniff at. And then there's Audio Text -- a service that provides medical, legal, economic and tourism advice. The service is provided "free", which means you need not subscribe to have access, but it costs LE1.50 per minute -- something many users had not realised.
For some time now, phone owners have been protesting that their bills are outrageously high. The buzz among irate customers waiting to pay their bills is that they have been swindled. One such bill payer, Hoda El-Sayed, is livid. An ordinary housewife under extraordinary stress, El-Sayed has lost her cool and she is screaming at the cashier in the telephone exchange. "How can I have a LE2,500 phone bill, when my bill is usually LE200 and I was away the whole time? This bill is full of numbers I don't know!"
She is not alone. The mood among those queuing up to pay their bills is that the phone company is to blame. Telecom Egypt officials, however, deny allegations of any wrongdoing and insist that these problems stem from indiscriminate use of new services.
There are currently six million telephone owners in Egypt. According to Telecom Egypt, 32 per cent of their subscribers pay less than LE50 for their telephone bill. An estimated 18 per cent pay between LE50 and LE100, 40 per cent pay between LE100 and LE500, and seven per cent creep up to the LE1,000 range.
It's the remaining three per cent, says Egypt Telecom's Gamal Shehata, vice president in charge of projects and planning, who are nit-picking about their bills. Shehata lumps into this three per cent individuals paying upwards of LE1,000 for their phone line and businesses paying between LE13,000 to LE 20,000. "There is no need for all this fuss," Shehata says. "Those who receive a big bill are the ones who can afford to pay it. This category of people knows very well that they have used the services offered by the company and have run up a large bill. The problem is that they either do not want to pay the money, or they do not want to believe that they have used the telephone that much. This is not our problem."
But if the long queues of distraught customers and profuse press coverage are anything to go by, this is not a wholly accurate picture. Kamal Gad, an engineer waiting to complain about his LE4,600 bill, says that when he requested an itemised bill, he found that the calls couldn't possibly all be his. "According to the details they supplied me, I made at least 11 phone calls at the same time," Gad said. "They also billed me for calls from when the phone began ringing, not when the call was completed. I am sure, because I discovered later that the people I was trying to call were not there."
But company officials claim that these allegations, common among people protesting their bills, are fabricated. Running a showy demonstration at the Ramses Telephone Exchange for the benefit of the press, officials "proved" that the time of a call is recorded only when the phone is picked up. As for claims of overlapping phone calls, officials admitted that it was a result of clocks at different telephone exchanges not being synchronised.
But the primary explanation for exorbitant bills made by Telecom Egypt is that people have misused the new services provided by the company. Services like Audio Text, which also allows customers to listen to a popular song or hear a joke, are only free in that customers do not pay a fee to be able to use them. "People should know that when they dial (0900), they are asking for a special service. Advice from a professional is worth more," said Telecom Egypt President Akil Beshir. "That is why the price per minute is so expensive." The real culprits, Beshir said, are the young people who overuse the service. "Parents come to me complaining, but after looking into the bill, they see that it is correct."
Ahmed Marawan, an accountant with three teenage sons, says his bill for the last six months exceeded LE3,600. "I do not have Internet access. The only service I 'enjoy' is a direct line. I discovered this Audio Text service by coincidence -- I didn't ask for it and my sons used it without my permission. Why should I be responsible for something I did not ask for? This is really ridiculous."
But Beshir says the service doesn't have to be such a problem. "There is no need to be upset or panic, the service can easily be cancelled. This should be a lesson to parents. They should be more careful with the space and freedom they give their children," he said.
But the problem is larger than the free rein given children. Modern technology also has a hand to play. Increasingly high-tech businesses and research needs demand instant communication, and that means, Internet services and mobile phones. Ahmed Osman, a former manager at the Ministry of Agriculture, was paying an LE1,200 phone bill. Osman told the Weekly that he had gotten Internet access "for the sake of the children." His phone bill used to cost some LE150, but it is now regularly over LE1,000. "I cannot afford this kind of money. I never expected my bills to be so large," he said.
So what if you want to contest your bill? We joined Hoda El-Sayed, the housewife we had found berating the telephone exchange cashier, to the complaints department. The female employee working there explained that she would have to pay the money first, then complain. Her complaint would then be sent to the investigations department, where they would check the bill. The woman, who requested anonymity, admitted that the computer often makes mistakes, but advised that there was no use filing a complaint. "But if you want to try your luck, go ahead."
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