Since privatizing in 2000, The Egyptian Telephone Company (ETC) also known as QuickTel has experienced notable success in the privatization model within the Egyptian setting. ETC specializes in manufacturing and providing advanced solutions for the Fixed Telecommunication Network solutions.

ETC's mission is "Through the continuous development of our highly responsive workforce, QuickTel is committed to offering the best, most innovative, and economic network solutions and services to Telecom operators."

The required efforts to maintain our competitiveness have entailed consistency, flexibility and innovation by our dedicated teams in order to improve all our internal divisions and resources. Markedly, these include improvements in HR, Training and Development, R&D and Quality Assurance standards.

ETC started out with approximately 900 employees in 1999 and has grown to over 1300 employees in a short time with over 200 Engineers were hired in the last five years. ETC enjoys a very strategic location next to the Nile Corniche and is laid out on 65,000 square meters with full land ownership.

As a result of our uncompromising team efforts, the company has proudly overcome complex export barriers resulting in contracts with over six countries. Notably, in an unprecedented occurrence, ETC exported Outdoor Distribution Cabinets from Egypt to China in 2005, making it the first cabinet production house in the MEA to sell into China.

The company is currently building on our existing strategic alliance with Huawei Technologies of China, which will include an agreement for Sales Support in the MEA region, opening a multitude of opportunities for both companies. In 2005 ETC billed Huawei over LE11.5 Million against CDMA product services provided in Egypt.

In 2005 our exports rose to LE71 Million from LE6.5 Million in 2004. As well, the utilization rate of the Plastics and Metal production facility rose from 10% in 2000 to over 90% in 2005.

Our future considerations include realizing the further liberalization of the fixed networks. We believe this will generate continued growth in the demand for Fixed Switching Equipment, which is growing rapidly, with a good market size of about 3,000,000, fixed subscribers annually, creating a market for Class V switch. Furthermore, the large landscape topology of MEA coupled with the accelerated need for more efficient implementation of Fixed Networks creates further, the need for CDMA products and services.

Currently, the MEA has 6.1% of the worlds market share for Fixed Line subscriptions, at the same time the MEA has 4% of the world's Fixed Service revenues market share. In comparison to North America's figures of 19.1% and 38% respectively, it is very evident that there is an increasingly strong market in the MEA and ETC for improving revenues from Fixed Line subscriptions, especially as we continue to add better products and services. Moreover, we will continue to develop our R&D and business capabilities for future growth and expansion.

As we move forward, ETC is confident that our continued expansion and investment into these evolving technologies positions us for continued success over the long term. We have a clear vision, defined objectives and very high expectations which substantiate our resolve to invest heavily in R&D and Human Development, committing ourselves to over 5% of our total turnover for 2005 in these key areas.

Current company initiatives and an enduring focus on realizing our strategic plan to fruition, validate the company's continued efforts and our unwavering dedication to achieving our goals in 2006 and beyond.

Eng. Ayman Hijjawi,
CEO and Chairman