Vodafone under fire for bowing to Egyptian pressure

guardian.co.uk, Juliette Garside, Tuesday 26 July 2011

• Activists seek protocols to curb use for propaganda
• Bahrain, Malaysia and China cited as risky states

Vodafone was ordered to cut the signal in certain areas of
Egypt in January. Photograph Chris Ison/PA Archive/PA
Photos

Vodafone Group is to meet human rights campaigners to discuss how it can prevent its networks being hijacked by repressive regimes after it was forced to send out pro-government messages and shut down its network by the Egyptian government during the uprising at the start of the year.

At Vodafone's annual meeting in London on Tuesday, Brett Solomon, director of lobby group Access, asked: "How prepared are you for the future crises that are sure to happen in the 70-odd countries in which you operate?

"Will you ensure that you are both able to protect your staff and the integrity of the network, but not in the position of having to once again shut down the internet or send pro-regime messages to your customers?"

Access named Bahrain, China and Malaysia as areas where telecoms companies should prioritise drawing up clear protocols. Bahrain has seen civil unrest this year and has a history of shutting down mobile services.

Last year SIM card users were forced to register their details. More than 400,000 of those who did not were cut off. Zain, Vodafone's partner in Bahrain, complied with the restrictions.

Along with two other mobile operators, France Telecom and Etisalat, Vodafone was ordered to cut the signal in certain areas of Egypt in January. It claims to have been the first to restore its service, doing so after 24 hours, but access to the internet remained blocked for five days.

Pro-government messages were sent to Vodafone customers during the early days of February, including the following call: "To every mother-father-sister-brother, to every honest citizen preserve this country as the nation is forever."

Outgoing Vodafone chairman Sir John Bond told the annual meeting that Vodafone only holds licences directly with governments in 26 countries, adding: "We have no discretion to negotiate variations. In every case … network operators are subject to similar legal provisions to those used in Egypt earlier this year. Any process to elaborate a new approach to human rights and communications must involve governments as well as industry and NGOs."

Promising the company would meet Access, Bond added: "Respect for human rights forms part of our assessment of any market into which we move our operations."

Access wants telecoms companies to agree crisis protocols with governments. These should ensure users can make emergency calls at all times, that calls and emails are not hacked, that networks are shut down for minutes or hours rather than days and that carriers cannot be used to disseminate propaganda.

Phone and internet companies are frequently forced to choose between protecting freedom of expression and commercial interests. Research in Motion, maker of the BlackBerry, faces a ban in India for refusing to provide access to customers' emails. Google exited China after its servers were attacked to extract confidential information about activists and Pakistan blocked Facebook and YouTube last year.

Gerard Kleisterlee, the former chief executive of German electronics firm Philips, was elected to succeed Bond as chairman. His arrival marks the first time Vodafone's two most senior leaders have been drawn from outside the UK – chief executive Vittorio Colao is Italian.

Colao continued to tread softly on the issue of Vodafone's 45% stake in the US group Verizon Wireless. Some investors are keen for Vodafone to take over the entire company or sell its stake. Verizon has promised to start paying a dividend from 2012, and the two companies are cooperating on joint purchasing and on servicing multinational clients.

"What I see are the tangible benefits of cooperation, working well together," said Colao.

Bond added: "One of the board's major roles is to unlock the value of the investment but that is going to have to be done very, very carefully."

Verizon chief operating officer Lowell McAdam takes over as chief executive next week, and has been working with Colao for the last 18 months to increase joint working. He told analysts last week there were no immediate merger plans.

"We can leverage each other's scale, but I would not send any kind of messages here that something like that's immediately on the horizon."

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