The National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (NTRA), has revealed that the requests for transferring the numbers between the three mobile phone networks Vodafone, Mobinil and Etisalat have reached 3760 requests, 100% of them have responded within the period ranging between 2-8 days by the operators. NTRA has emphasized that the number of complaints which have been registered by the end of December 2012 regarding database services about  4815 complaints for the four internet companies TE Data, Link dotNet, Vodafone and Etisalat, noting that TE Data has seized the major share from the provided complaints with 2527 complaints. NTRA has revealed that the responding of internet companies for the customers’ complaints came with 100% by Vodafone internet, 99.7% for TE Data, 99.6% for Link dotNet and 99.48% for Etisalat connection. An official source by NTRA said the number of complaints for mobile phone networks have reached around 12.000 complaints, 73% have been responded by 87.4 thousand complaints, noting that the average time of complaints is about 9.7 day-complaints. The total number of complaints  against Etisalat Egypt within the last quarter are about 1425 complaints, 84.9% have been responded in an average period of 29 days from the date of offering. More»

Egypt’s ministers of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as well as of Housing and Urban Communities are inaugurating today the first phase of Real Estate Mortgage Fund developing project which affiliated to the Housing Ministry. The project has included the (MCIT) aims to establish integrated system in order to control  the mortgage fund actions to make it easier for the citizens to obtain the required loans for the fund, simultaneously it also guarantee monitoring and control the procedures related to granting loans. Eng. Atef Helmy, (ICT) Minister, has asserted the need to cooperate with all Ministries, Authorities and Devices in the country and contribute to develop the work system in it through a strategic plan targeting to become a digital society, develop the informatics capacity, technological skills development for workers, and improve the provided services to the citizens. More»

Apple Inc kept a low profile in Washington as it grew into one of the most valuable companies in the world. Now the iPad maker has taken the lead, perhaps inadvertently, on a top priority for U.S. business: simplifying America's tax code. Chief Executive Tim Cook, who was called before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations on Tuesday to answer questions about Apple's alleged tax avoidance, used his appearance to plead for an overhaul of corporate taxes. That marked a sharp turnabout for a company that until now has been content to let rivals like Google and Microsoft fight Washington policy battles. And even though the scrutiny Apple has come under in Washington could further challenge the company as it copes with a sagging stock price, rising competition and questions about its labor practices, it may have little choice but to commit fully to the fight over the corporate tax code. More»

MSC Software Corporation (NASDAQ:MSCS) has called the Petroleum Ministry in order to activate the security systems on  smart cards and coupons to exchange the petrol with subsidized prices according to the Petroleum Ministry’s plan. Eng. Amr Farouk, the Managing Director at MCS, said the company has provided a number of presentations to the Ministry officials to activate smart card and coupon systems security, noting that it has not received any responses from the Ministry regarding these offers. Farouq has emphasized that the activation needs a strategy that will be implemented in several phases and make an experimental program before circulating it on 10 million citizens of the vehicles’ owners. He pointed out that a number of European countries have implemented some projects to identify the most needy categories in supporting the petroleum products, saying some European countries have used Prepaid cards "scratch cards" to buy petroleum products. More»

Hewlett-Packard Co raised its 2013 earnings outlook after quarterly results beat low expectations, as CEO Meg Whitman's turnaround plan helped offset shrinking personal computer sales with enterprise computing services. While fiscal second-quarter profit plummeted 32 percent, Wall Street had braced for worse. HP shares gained 14 percent after the company projected full-year earnings per share of $3.50 to $3.60, raising the lower end by 10 cents, and fiscal third-quarter profit that topped analyst estimates. Whitman, who took the helm at the world's largest PC maker more than a year ago, is orchestrating a turnaround, trying to recapture some of the Silicon Valley icon's former strong growth. She has said the process could take years. HP received a warmer welcome from investors for its results than smaller rival Dell Inc, which last week reported a 79 percent slide in profit and is now mired in a takeover battle between founder Michael Dell and activist investor Carl Icahn. More»

South Korean electronics giant's investment in local rival Pantech in a deal valued at almost US$47.6 million will boost cooperation in smartphone and other business areas. Samsung Electronics has announced it will buy a 10 percent stake in South Korea's third-largest handset maker, Pantech. Yonhap News Agency reported Wednesday the deal will be valued at about 53 billion won (US$47.6 million) and it will help solidify bilateral cooperation between both parties, particularly in the area of smartphones. This investment will make Samsung the third-largest stakeholder in Pantech. It is behind U.S. mobile chip manufacturer Qualcomm and state-run Korea Development Bank, which own 11.96 percent and 11.81 percent stakes, respectively, it noted. In the South Korean market, Pantech trails behind Samsung and LG Electronics in terms of mobile phone shipment, the report added.Source:ZD Net More»

Eng. Mohamed Al-Nawawi, CEO of Telecom Egypt (TE), said (TE) has indeed taken serious steps towards becoming an integrated telecom operator, pointing to Telecom Egypt’s commitment to specified timetable to launch the integrated operator services and complete the pricing of the integrated licenses by the National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (NTRA). Al-Nawawi has emphasized that his company has taken all technical and technological measures and experiences so as to provide mobile phone services, which it is expected to provide the service in conjunction with Ramadan (holy Islamic month), asserting the importance to become  an integrated telecom operator in order to achieve the balance with the mobile phone firms operating in the Egyptian telecom market. Al-Nawawi added that the integrated license will contribute for (TE)’s rapid exist in the mobile market depending on mobile phone operators networks in the market and achieving more revenues as well as leading the entire Egyptian telecom market. Al-Nawawi has asserted that (TE) has treasure of human cadres who able to keep up with all of these developments in the telecom market, adding that the company has customer service centers across governorates, about 130 centers have been developed, and it is expected to reach 300 centers by the end of 2013. More»

Orascom Telecom Holding (ORTE.CA) announced that it didn’t informed about stoppage of negotiations between Russian VimpelCom, owner of Orascom, and the Algerian Government about OT’s unit in Algeria Djezzy. OT added, in a release sent on Wednesday to Egypt’s bourse - EGX that, it is not party in these talks. More»

The long-standing negotiations between Russia’s VimpelCom and the Algerian authorities over the acquisition of Orascom Telecom Algerie (OTA) ‘Djezzy’ have been ceded until further notice, senior sources told Amwal Al Ghad on Wednesday. The statement came in the wake of the meeting, which included officials from VimpelCom and representatives of the Algerian government, held in Paris earlier this month. During the meeting VimpelCom offered a new joint stock agreement, but it was rejected by the Algerian government and the talks have been stopped since then. Meanwhile, government sources said Algeria is seeking a new valuation for VimpelCom's local mobile phone unit Djezzy before acquiring 51 percent of it. "There will be a new valuation of Djezzy," the source, who asked not to be named, said on May 11th. More»

Google Inc's tax affairs will come under renewed scrutiny in Britain on Wednesday when the leader of the opposition Labor party accuses the Internet company of wrongly going to "extraordinary lengths" to avoid paying tax. In comments designed to politically outflank Prime Minister David Cameron ahead of next month's G8 summit on what has become a high-profile issue, Ed Miliband, the Labor leader, will say he is disappointed that Google pays so little tax. "I can't be the only person here who feels disappointed that such a great company as Google would be reduced to arguing that when it employs thousands of people in Britain, makes billions of pounds of revenue in Britain, it pays just a fraction of that in tax," Miliband will tell a Google event held just outside London. "So when Google does great things for the world, as it does, I applaud you, but when Google goes to extraordinary lengths to avoid paying its taxes, I think it's wrong." More»