Social Media Campaigns Calling for Unlimited Internet in Egypt
Social media platforms in Egypt are witnessing a protest campaign against the limited data quota packages
imposed by internet service providers,
as many users rallied to make the campaign's two hashtags among the most trending hashtags in Egypt.
Another user claimed that Egyptians pay double the price per gigabyte compared to any other country,
and complained that even then, the internet is capped and suffers from frequent speed throttling.
Although monthly internet packages in Egypt have varying speed limits based on users' landline capacity,
some service providers have limited internet quotas,
which, once consumed, continue to function but at a reduced speed.
In the event that a subscriber needs to upgrade back to their original speed,
they must either repurchase their monthly plan or use an additional quota top-up.
One social media user even
went so far as to say that these packages fail to account for the evolution of internet culture,
especially after the COVID-19 pandemic forced the world into a digital culture that now dominates many aspects of life.
Egypt has seen a notable increase in the number of internet users since the emergence of the coronavirus pandemic.
In January 2022, Egypt had approximately 76.9 million internet users – up from 50.4 million reported in January 2021 – of whom 63 million use mobile data,
10.9 million are ADSL users,
and 2.2 million are USM modem users,
according to a report issued in March 2022 by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.
Mobile data users in Egypt alone increased by 13.6 million users in a single year,
up from 50.4 million users in January 2021.
The campaign also saw contributions from various public figures,
such as the well-known Egyptian actor Mohamed Saad,
who expressed his support for the hashtag with a cartoon mocking internet speeds.
Furthermore, prominent Egyptian actor Mohamed Henedy participated in the campaign, stating
that “unlimited internet has become a necessity in the coming period”.
“The internet has become our entire lives … The state has developed the education system and made it internet-dependent
… Journalism has shifted to video journalism …
And we have thousands of players in one of the most important industries in the world,
which Henedy added that the Ministry of Youth and Sports is currently supporting.
Egypt has invested approximately 60 billion Egyptian pounds to develop telecommunications infrastructure as part of its plan
to pave the way for Egypt's digitization, according to a previous statement by Minister of Communications and Information Technology Amr Talaat.
The country currently ranks 83rd globally in fixed internet speed
according to the Speedtest Global Index,
up from its previous rank of 86th in February 2022.
The Speedtest’s Global Index is the ranking system created by Ookla – t
he world's leading internet testing, data, and analytics company –
which compares internet speed data from users around the world on a monthly basis.
Search keywords:
Internet speed in Egypt
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Egypt
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