New plan aims for 30 percent of households by 2010 CAIRO: Twelve companies have purchased the conditions statement for The Ministry of Communication and Information Technology s (MCIT) initiative to re-launch its 2002 PC for Every Home campaign. MCIT s new effort provides more affordable computers and stricter guidelines on participating companies in an effort to achieve its goal of covering 30 percent of households by 2010. Company representatives met with Program Director Ashraf Mashhour on Monday to discuss their concerns. Mashhour was not immediately available for comment. Offers are due at MCIT Sept. 3. The new program offers the public personal computers ranging in price from LE 1,585 to LE 3,300. The old program, which was launched in partnership with Microsoft Egypt, offered computers at prices ranging from LE 3,000 to LE 5,000, with up to 48 months of financing and monthly payments of less than LE 100. The 2002 initiative found success in doubling the number of households with computers, now up to an estimated 600,000 to 700,000 relative to 2002 figures, according to Microsoft Egypt Sales Manager Ihab Fathy. This is one of the most successful initiatives in the region, considering its size and scope, Fathy says. Still, the numbers fall far short of the MCIT s initial goal of reaching selling 7 million computers in the first seven years, or by 2009. Megacom CEO Tarek Thabet says the initiative has faced several problems that have kept it from taking off in the manor aspired by MCIT. One problem has been the complication of procedures for individuals seeking to purchase a computer including dealing with Telecom Egypt (TE), their lending institution and the computer distribution company. TE allowed their customers to use their phone lines as collateral to finance their PC purchase under the initiative. Other problems he adds included high computer prices relative to average income and the lack of maintenance centers in rural areas. In its conditions statement, MCIT has worked to solve some of the problems posed by Thabet and other critics of the program such as requiring new distributors to operate maintenance centers in at least seven governorates, toughening requirements on distributor selection, lowering prices and setting strict standards on the quality of PCs to be sold. Still, Thabet says one of the biggest problems is no formal customer surveys were ever conducted to find out what hindered the programs success in the first place. If you really want to increase computer sales, you should support the user in purchasing rather than supporting the supplier, says Thabet, adding efforts should have been directed more toward making PCs more affordable either through better financing options or even a direct subsidy. It s not about computer experts giving us their opinion, says Thabet. It s about the beneficiary giving us their opinion, because that s what matters. Fathy says the program did face challenges, mainly in marketing, but prices have been improving, he says. It s becoming more and more affordable, so the trend is going in the right direction, says Fathy. (MOI) is also stepping up its marketing campaign. We re trying to show people PC s are not just for games. They can be used for education and business purposes. Some things maybe very useful but people must be made aware of them. According to TE Data, computer penetration reached just 1.5 percent in Egypt in 2004. Internet penetration stood at less than 10 percent.
