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Quote: Wind Mobile to inevitably acquire Mobilicity and Public Mobile?
During the wireless spectrum auction a couple years ago Globalive (Wind Mobile parent company) invested $442 million, a portion of these funds were backed by Egyptian-based Orascom Telecom Holding SAE. Today, Orascom chairman Naguib Sawiris was in Toronto and had a few choice quotes.
In an interview with the Globe he stated that the big 3 (Rogers, Bell and TELUS) are “a joke”. Sawiris said “I have been offered by two of them to buy me out at a very significant profit. But that means I’m a broker, not an industrialist. It’s against my saga, against my history. I’m not the kind of guy who goes out for the money. It’s about success. And this, I would consider it as a bribe.”
In addition, probably the one that will get the most feedback is that Sawiris says the other new wireless entrants Mobilicity and Public Mobile will inevitably be acquired by WIND. “They will be dead on arrival. Wind should be the consolidator of all the smaller players here. We are going to be open to that. We are not interested in smaller players that are only coming with cash, or the licenses they paid cash for. We want them to succeed and have some subscribers. Because we can’t do the job alone.”
Orascom Telecom has a massive 120 million worldwide wireless subscribers. It’s now reported that Wind Mobile here in Canada has over 120,000 subscribers.
Thoughts?
Source: Globe
Discussion
90 comments for “Quote: Wind Mobile to inevitably acquire Mobilicity and Public Mobile?”
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Which is why he DIDN’T sell out right?
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@JAWG
Back up your statement with concrete examples. Any monkey can give generalities and spew FUD. whats your proof??? You sound like a monkey with a deficient IQ to me. Anyone else get the same feeling??
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If Wind and Moblicity merge, I hope better reception is the main benefit. My Wind signal blows.
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At least you don’t lose your signal outright. TELUS and Bell were without service for about 4 hours on Saturday evening without a single explanation.
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Mr. Sawiris is a very interesting guy, see this>> http://www.charlierose.com/swf/CRGoogleVideo.swf?docId=-3336366114005385093:105000:2468000
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well, I like wind and think that Public and Mobilicity are terrible. I can’t see Wind buying them but out of the new carriers Wind is the best and offers the most value.
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Way to go WIND.. Way to go.. Impressive. BIG 3 are a joke indeed. A bad bad joke
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So why would the big 3 approach uncle swarie if, according to jabroni, he is not in control of wind and he is? By that comment Swarie has come out and said he, and his company run Wind. Any windies care to explain that? Why ask someone to sell you something unless you know they are in control and can do so. And what i***t talks about private business matters unless he is an i***t. Pretty clear he is.
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JAWG I would be curious ot knwo more of their true dealings if you could give details, perhaps this would help for those who vote not just with their dollar but with their heart.
Here is what I have found..
“It seems that shady Egyptian businessman Naguib Sawiris is stronger than freedom of speech on the Internet. Sawiris actually figured out a way to censor one of my blogs (www.blogster.com/thetruenaguibsawiris), because the information mentioned on it (which was proven and sourced) did not fit with the reputation he’s trying to build.”
or this…
“If you’re wondering why you’ve never come across any negative news about Egypt telecom magnate Naguib Sawiris, that’s because journalists who attempt to expose his corrupt business deals end up with prison sentences. ”
lastly, here is the facts folks what I have learned I am disgusted/not supporting.
“In March 2002, a Cairo court sentenced Adel Hammouda and Essam Fahmy of the independent weekly Sawt al-Umma to six months in prison each for defaming Naguib Sawiris, as the Committee to Protect Journalist points out. Just what did Hammouda, a reporter, and Fahmy, the paper’s publisher, do to receive this sentence? They wrote articles accusing Naguib Sawiris and his telecommunications company, Orascom Telecom, of financial misconduct. The journalists charged that the Sawiris family, with the help of Bank Misr, used false bank certificates to raise Orascom’s capital by 400 million Egyptian pounds (about USD 90 million at the time). According PEN World Association of Writers, each was sentenced to six months in prison and fined 500 Egyptian pounds. The conviction was overturned on appeal, but NS and his family filed a total of 30 lawsuits against the paper.”
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I hope the other two new entrants don’t get bought out, because then we’ll have the “big four”. The more competition from independent companies, the better. It doesn’t even really make sense for Wind to buy them out. Buying Public would at least expand their network to Montreal, but they use CDMA anyways.
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It wouldn’t surprise me.
Frankly, I can’t see Public and Mobilicity succeeding. WIND played this well, they got a lot of public opinion very early in the game and listened to almost all of it. They promised to give what everyone wanted and then made good on their promises.
The other two sort of just showed up one day and said “Hey, we hate contracts too. So, um, switch to us.”
It’s not everyday a telecom company shows interest in the opinions of the Canadian people, so when WIND went as far as they did, they turned heads and finally woke Canadians up on the gouging that’s been going on here.
They’ve been doing well and deserve to succeed. They’ve brought true competition to the Canadian wireless industry. If they can expand quicker by absorbing Public and Mobilicity, so be it. At this point, given their actions as well as Sawiris’ comments, I think I can trust them to do so without turning into another Bellus/Robbers.
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Except that Mobilicity has the best plan on the block. $65 for all you can eat abslolutely murders everyone else. Irrefutable it is.
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Trust him? So why would the big 3 approach uncle swarie if, according to jabroni, he is not in control of wind and he is? By that comment Swarie has come out and said he, and his company run Wind. Any windies care to explain that? Why ask someone to sell you something unless you know they are in control and can do so. And what i***t talks about private business matters unless he is an i***t.
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My friend who invaded whom in the Middle East? Half these people that you call “Dictators” were or all still are in place because of Westerners and “secret societies.” Just because you lack understanding and tolerance of other people’s cultures do not make assumptions. The USA and Britain have the bloodiest histories of all nations in the world. Age does not make one wise, clearly you missed that point in your life. Know the Ledge.
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Rawg, not only is WIND Italy a completely different company, it has a different setup and is in a different country. With different laws and regulations. Right now in Italy (as I was there a few weeks ago) vodaphone seems to be losing to Wind. So by your terms, it’s only a matter of time before wind destroys everything here.
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Please don’t sell out to the big 3 lots of Canadians are and will support you all the way.
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I hear you JAWG, they already recently started censoring people more on their website (now I know why!).
type in search engine delete in wind to find this…
“FREEDOM OF CONVERSATION? why did you delete a post just made saying he was censored, now it disspeared?
there was no swearing involved, this is non-sense, and he could ..: (can’t read this whole msg because deleted)
“Could someone from Wind please clarify? This is not a complaint, simply an inquiry to help clarify forum rules. I reread the forum guidelines this evening, and I’m at a ..”
Here is wind;s response to it…
”
5 days, 12 hours ago
Hi all – Sap is right on the money with his explanation. There are a couple of different ways that content within the community is moderated.
For the content that’s moderated by our Community team, there are a number of reasons why the posts NuclearBroccoli lists may have been deleted.
As we explain in the Community Guidelines, “We welcome ideas and suggestions about how WIND can make wireless services better for Canadians. Discussions that are outside that scope may be deleted at any time. This includes posts that are considered to be primarily customer service-oriented.”
We also remove duplicate posts – so if you’re posting a comment that’s substantially similar to an earlier post, there’s a good chance it will be removed.
Best,
Aileen, Community Manager”
****funny how they mention in this article bribes, since that’s what they clearly do!!!****
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What’s worse? Being funded by a questionable person trying to bring positive change and innovation to another country or a home grown company that stabs it’s own people in the back all the time and makes sure anyone that tries to help them disappears as quickly as possible?
Or how about THREE home grown companies that work together to stab and steal as much as possible from it’s own people that helped them get to where they are today?
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Are you kidding? Shady Canadian Telecom’s have been taking us for YEARS whether it is Internet, Land Line Phone, Cellular? Satellite and Cable TV Canada has some of the worst rates for the least amount of service
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So what if the big 3 are Canadians and Wind is foreign? the big 3 screw Canadians every day of the year, so screw them back.
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They were dead in the water because they got little to no help from the government and it’s like kid going against the US army. Mobilicity and Public Mobile just don’t have enough money to compete with the billions the big three make and the media strangle hold (have you seen a new entrants ads in media owned by Rogers media?)
It’s sad but our government didn’t do enough. Throwing money around won’t be enough. We need fundamental laws changed in this country so monopolies can’t exist ever.
Wind only survived because of it’s financial baking. Whatever you think of it’s backer we’re lucky if even they survive.
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Wind should buy Videotron first.
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Public Mobile’s spectrum is useless.
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I’ve been smiling ever since I read this in the Globe. Five stars. GO WIND!
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hmm wind does not fail at anything.. Wind Greece and Wind Italy are on the ropes.. algeria wants out.. even Egypt is wanting their shares back.. Airtel is putting pressure on Pakistan.. I can see now why he wants the Russian deal so bad.. the man gets caught making up facts that suit him
, he cooks numbers, does not pay taxes, gets in bed with dictator governments.. and then has the melons to say I am a saint.. So I guess its clear that he runs wind now huh..
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This is great in my books! These companies here seem to think they are the only fish in the pond, at the end of the day they need a hard lesson!
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He probaly is right to tell you the truth. Its less likely to happen with Mobilicity but very likely with Public. IF Wind does acquire Public it will be good for us Montrealers we would get more choices especially with Videotron coming out with their network.
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I highly doubt that two of the big three have already offered to buy WInd. I say this because they are strictly prohibited by the federal government from doing so. They can’t buy them for another 3.5 years so I think its a bit early for anyone to be making him an offer. Plus there is good chance Wind will run out of money before then
He is right however that all the small players will eventually consolidate or die. And there is a chance that Wind will die. It is not a certainty that Wind will survive either.
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The fact is in the business world it is ruthless. Some people have talked about the shady dealings of these companies. I don’t know if it’s true but it’s a dog eat dog world after all. If it’s not your mobile carrier it’s your mobile phone itself just look for how and where they are made…so by the end of the day I just want Wind mobile to give the big 3 competition and actually start a price war. Bad for the corporations but great for the consumers. And so the ruthlessness of the business world continues.
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Then why then are they selling wind Italy to Vimpelcom? Kind of shoots himself in the foot.
I hope wind succeeds but i am waiting for a better network before I jump ship
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Orascom Telecom isn’t exactly a hot commodity right now. They’re burning a lot of cash and their profits are razor thin. They might be looking to free up some capital from mature markets and move that to developing markets. Or avoid an embarrassing cash crunch.
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I agree Kiz, lets face it corporations are all in bed with someone. Our big three are no different then then the rest.
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Wind buying Public would be pointless. Public uses different spectrum and is CDMA. Wind buying Mobilicity or a merger between the two is plausible down the road.
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Why does the front page show that there’s 28 comments and I look here and none of them show up?
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120 Million subs with an average arpu of $6.
lol @ this clown. Go back to the desert.
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@mickey:
I spent 10 years in Monte Mario-Rome and I can assure you Orascom is garbage…plus get your facts straight as there was a link between Orascom-Wind Italy.Just like there is with Orascom-Wind Canada…both just as bad!!
Regardless what laws/regulations exist Orascom has proven to be corrupt anywhere they go…proven fact!!!
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL2891696720080228
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Keep in mind I’m not pro Rogers or anything but when orascom CEO says s**t like that how do you think bell telus and Rogers will take it not well soon they’ll crush wind which I hope they don’t but it seems like all wind is doing is burning cash and the 100 k subs are still not enough for all expenses, and there losing money. everyday is a loss
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So what if Public Mobile is CDMA, it won’t be difficult to give thier customers a free phone and move them all to AWS. A CDMA – AWS bridge is all that is required and they get access to Quebec too. Go for it Wind. I would rather be pampered by Wind than be r*ped by the Canadian Big3.
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People can knock wind as much as they want but wind came with a good offering last december. The company is brand new and it was inevitable that they wld have some problems. Look at clearnet and fido. Clearnet sucked when they first came on the scene. I bought their 1 phone and had some problems. They let me return it within the 30 days. The difference btwn bell, rogers and wind is that wind recognizes its problems. They don’t tell you to go eff yourself when you have an issue. Provided wind doesn’t sell out, watch for them. They are giving canadians what we wanted. It’s not supposed to happen overnight. If believe that wind was going to start up problem free then you might as well start collecting teeth and leaving then under your pillow.
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One thing is being competitive and ruthless to protect your interests in business,another is to be totally corrupt and deal with every opportunity in that manner…I think Orascom fits into that category quite nicely like no other and if AT&T-Mobile were here I wouldn’t have that much of a problem with them.
Also it’s the individuals who run Wind,their connections to Orascom are too close in the past and considering they couldn’t get any North American financing even the way they got into the market is extremely suspicious where our government acted erratically…in short nothing Swasiman says can be trusted and he deserves no respect whatsoever.
Furthermore,if he wants to talk about being backwards why doesn’t he start with his own nation where the chances of their leaders getting shot everyday is pretty high,where women are treated like possessions and racism against Jews is openly permitted with terrorist fronts making Egypt their home base…maybe this is why he so easily mingles with pathetic Dictators and the main reason our Providers have more credibility.
Don’t blame high cell phone rates on the Big Three or your dissatisfaction with them because you couldn’t afford an expensive phone that you probably didn’t need and got stuck in a contract,blame our government for the mess that exists and making the environment even worse by secretly allowing a garbage corporation like Orascom into the market…most of you Fanboys just continue to ramble on by giving the thumbs down with no knowledge base thinking that slightly lower rates with a deceitful company will improve the industry and obviously most of you feeling smug carrying your cheap Androids have no clue as to what is really going on.
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There was a lot more candour in the report than I would have expected.
The report made it pretty clear, Orascom is calling the shots and not Wind/Lacavera. Tony Lacavera must be seething that “daddy” came to Canada to lay out the company’s strategy to the financial media, completely destroying the “Wind is s separate company” myth.
If the business plan is to take out Mobilicity and Public Mobile, then we are talking about a Big 3 again (based on the fact that Bell and Telus jointly operate the HSPA network which will carry the bulk of their traffic in the few years Wind needs to go after its competitors – the newcomers being prohibited from selling out for 5 years – Bell and Telus having the same overhead and operating costs are bound to price their services about the same). The Harper government’s pledge to increase foreign investment to stimulate competition, and to exempt Wind from the current foreign ownership laws, is shown to be completely hollow.
The business ethics of the places Orascom does business tell a lot about the company. Enough has been said about that already so I’ll avoid going into why not all investors are chasing opportunities in North Korea, Russia, Pakistan.
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Now it all makes sense regarding WIND censorship. Many posts on HowardForums state that their posts on WIND.ca have been censured.
I guess the fruit falls close to the tree concerning WIND and it’s attempt to block “bad news”.
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On Winds website it must be pro wind or it’s deleted. Show them in a negative light deleted. Point out a service issue deleted.
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I find it hilarious that Swasiman talks about competition,yet in Iraq/N Korea/Algiers/etc there wasn’t hardly any competition or even mobile service and that to get into places like Italy/Greece/Pakistan/etc there was always corruption involved…the man is a con and that’s how he makes his money.
Finally people realize who is in charge of Wind and that most likely in legal terms it is not really Canadian owned,what people should be more concerned with is the censorship on their site where no Freedom of Speech is allowed and how our government is hiding after creating this mess…when journalists/web-sites are being threatened/bribed not to tell the truth you know there is something seriously wrong and the dimwit Fanboys are just too plain dumb to realize it.
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JAWG it has always been clear that Orascom runs things.. the facts spoke for themselves. But the Pro Wind zealots did not want to believe it. Sawiris can say its his company and still the Windies will not believe it. many people have been saying for a long time that he runs the show and this is just another example. Sawiris goes before the CRTC to plead his case.. then he keeps the numbers of subs quiet until he is ready to report them.. now he gets some media attention and calls his competition a joke.. I have yet to hear the big 3 be so childish.. to me its acts of a desperate man.
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Strong words from a new wireless company in Canada.
Thank you for changing the landscape of cellular pricing here. Go Wing go.
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Who is Wing!?!
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Wing is Wong.. its Wind LOL funny there is little talk of this on the Wing website.. well there was but it got you know deleted.
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Here’s a question!?!
How many Windies would sign a 3 year contract with the company if they had them,my prediction is close to NIL and the reasons are obvious…however even though Fanboys claim the Big Three are absolute monsters for locking people into contracts a large majority of Canadians are still signing them willingly to get the better phones regardless of age since they know the networks are reliable which goes totally against what some individuals here claim and the numbers just keep growing since Rogers/Bell/Telus are all doing fine.
Canada luckily is not corrupt like North Korea which is the type of country Orascom usually deals with and not all citizens here are willing to kiss their azz for slightly lower phone rates. Sawiris is well known for greed with no real principles and if you’re the same you’ll most likely support his corporation/Wind that has proven to be totally dishonest.
Supposedly Orascom is a world leader in billing software for mobile providers,yet after almost a full year in business their on-line system is still a joke and customers just pray that things will get better…open your eyes people and realize you are being used as suckers.
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@JAWG
“Furthermore,if he wants to talk about being backwards why doesn’t he start with his own nation where the chances of their leaders getting shot everyday is pretty high,where women are treated like possessions and racism against j*** is openly permitted with terrorist fronts making Egypt their home base…maybe this is why he so easily mingles with pathetic Dictators and the main reason our Providers have more credibility”
Read earlier in the thread. He funds school programs and the secular media. He also backs to pro-USA SECULAR government and wants the Islamic brotherhood out of the country.
The guy is a christian for crying out loud. Of course, your racist head only sees Brown guy = Muslim = Terrorist.
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r:
Al Capone also fed the hungry and gave money to the Catholic Schools,he also called himself a Christian…was he!?!No difference…S’s record if filled with corruption and regardless how much money he pays out to make up for his sins that won’t change the real facts.
You sound like a total loser,you are afraid of the truth and call me a racist thinking that will make you right although it only makes you seem more pathetic with no useful response…I never said anything about his color/race and I am speaking about only 1 dishonest individual from Egypt and his corporation.Plus his beliefs don’t match the way he runs his business and the courts know him well.
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wind will last this war. I can see wind in the heels of the bigs by 2013 in terms of subscribers.
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Jawg, I think you might taking the mobile industry a little too seriously. Why do you feel so strongly about Wind that you see the need to compare them and their parent company to an infamous criminal? What’s next, calling them Nazis? Just relax a little. It’s like all your money is invested in Rogers or something.
And honestly, this goes for everyone, who cares if somebody is Christian, Muslim, atheist, or whatever? Religion doesn’t mean someone is a good or bad person.
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People caught using an unauthorized mobile phone in North Korea face life imprisonment, or even the death sentence because most of the phones come from mainland China since they have very strong signals that penetrate into the country…ironically once Orascom gets established with his GSM network North Koreans will be greatly restricted because they have no human rights where everything will be monitored and Sawiris wants us to believe he is doing this for humanitarian reasons.His only true interest there will be establishing a banking system which they really don’t have yet and you can guess what that will be used for.The reason no one deals with N Korea is because they are corrupt and this is where Orascom feels right at home.
Too bad this corporation was allowed to enter Canada and I pity the fools who support them.
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@Taylor:
Someone else made the assumption that because Sawiris gives to the poor he is a moral man,BS because his actions or method of operation doesn’t prove it which is why I made the comparison that fits and the connection between Orascom and Wind is quite clear by now…Orascom controls everything even though on paper it may seem like it is Canadian owned and that’s a big flaw in our system.It may not mean much to some only interested in cheaper rates,however the way the CRTC/Government/these companies acted is disgraceful worth investigating and considering Orascom’s record it is something to worry about.We are not dealing with AT&T or T-Mobile,we are dealing with one of the most corrupt corporations in the world that bribes/threatens individuals to remain silent and their history speaks for itself.I’m very relaxed/I have no money invested in any of the Big Three and it’s just too bad that most of you are too brain dead to see the whole picture.I can’t help if the truth hurts,still it will be found in the future and hopefully Orascom will self-destruct due to their own greed which is obvious…again this man is just a high rolling hustler and nothing compared to our providers.
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Well said. But it falls on deaf ears. They just want cheap cellular the where as and what fors are not important to them.
Once Orascom sees that his days are numbered her ein canada he will do as he does in most countries.. pull out and make an excuse.
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i love wind so far it is a good carrier… their data plans and flexibility of phones are great!… they have the right idea in my humble opinion… data and phone for under 50.00 ???
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rkarsk
The bigger the philanthropist the bigger the crook. Time to grow up kid, donating can mean nothing except promotion. He is no Mother Teresa.
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JAWG, I think that N Korea is more worried about communications to S Korea than China.
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I think the new carriers will probably survive because they are not publicly traded companies. They have no fear of shareholders running away driving down their stocks.
This bad economy also favors the new entrants. The budget minded people affected by the recession will probably go with the new carriers and put up with the issues to get better deals. I can’t fault them for that but if you own a business it would not be a good idea right now.
The important thing is to be honest about the issues and help your fellow man. Don’t be like 5G’s who is probably a wind employee running defense for wind on the Internet forums, just tell the truth.
I wonder how many aliases Aileen has?
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mikey let me understand you .. Vodafone is losing to whom? Vodafone is not losing to anyone my friend.. eu wide calling… does wind have that? I can walk into any voda shop in the eu and have my sim swapped out transfer funds amke a payment.. easy peasy. Wind wishes they worked as well as vodafone. typical wind troll.. wind is a brand thats about to do the goldfish float … I just will enjoy when they get flushed,
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@JAWG
Back up your statement with concrete examples. Any monkey can give generalities and spew FUD. whats your proof??? You sound like a monkey with a deficient IQ to me. Anyone else get the same feeling??
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@TBR:
Actually,believe it or not South Korea had a chance to build a GSM network in North Korea,however the US asked them to back down for political reasons and they did…I think the Dictator is so psychotic he’s afraid of everyone and that’s why he picked Orascom giving them 75% ownership where the State only has the rest.You can bet Swasiman has something up his sleeves and couldn’t care less about mobile use in one of the world’s most corrupt countries.
@louie the programed Wind robot:
I already backed up my statements many times just like Rocco/Luke/Jarr/etc and if you Windies can’t read or do basic research that is your problem…talk about low IQ and being gullible.
That’s the problem with Windies,they are very fast to give the thumbs down to hide the truth,they insult people with no reason thinking they’ll go away and they always lie about how great the company they support is…still when it comes to rebuttals/logic/vital information/etc to prove it they offer nothing and I get the feeling that a trained monkey is smarter than you.
You Windies really give me a good laugh…thank you Chimps!
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JAWG.. time and time again you and I and many others have posted direct links.. google orascom in trouble.. thats a simple one.. then get comfy as you have a lot of reading to do.. then google wind in trouble in Greece or Italy..back taxes, investigations, number padding.. same thing.. but you will not believe it.. e-mail orascom and ask for an investment package.. you will see how poorly the stock is going.. construction strong.. cellular lost leader for them…
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You CHIMPS have to learn how to read!
Good articles!
Given the onslaught of recent media articles highlighting the flaws of corrupt Egyptian telecom tycoon Naguib Sawiris , it is not surprising to learn that Naguib Sawiris uses bribes to secure lucrative business deals.
“I’m the money man. Wherever I smell money, I go,” Naguib Sawiris said at the 2007 3GSM World Conference. Naguib Sawiris may be the money man, but that’s because wherever he goes, we smell bribes. That was almost certainly the case when Orascom obtained a telephone license in the Republic of Congo by buying 100 percent of Libertis Telecom.
To secure the Congo deal, together with Rami Antaki, Naguib Sawiris agreed to do a “favor” for Congolese President Denis Sassou Nguesso. Naguib Sawiris promised the President’s daughter, Julienne Sassou Johnson (aka “Joujou”), a 20 percent stake in his company. The arrangement was organized so that Mr. Antaki would get a 15 percent stake in the telecom venture through a Mauritian company called Babybells–Mauritian offshore companies are a haven for evading taxes–and another 20 percent would go to the President’s daughter Joujou to fulfill the bribe. That’s 35 percent of Naguib Sawiris’ company reserved for pure corruption. It would be bad to suggest Naguib Sawiris is robbing his business partners of cash. But in this case, he’s also robbing his shareholders.
Things got complicated along the way. Around December 2005, Orascom Telecom sold Libertis Congo to MTN for around USD 100 million. MTN paid 100 percent of the purchase proceeds to Orascom and 35 percent of that total reserved for corruption was then paid by Orascom to Rami Antaki’s brother and Naguib Sawiris’ good friend, Christian Antaki, to an account at HSBC Cairo. Why did the funds go to Christian and not Rami? Because Rami was already in trouble for cheating on taxes in France while simultaneously collecting the French equivalent of state-subsidized welfare (Revenu minimum d’insertion, or RMI).
But instead of giving the 20 percent promised to the President’s daughter, Rami Antaki withheld the funds and started engaging in speculation with Orascom’s shares, using the opportunity to manipulate the stock price of Orascom using insider information, and make quick money. Things turned sour in 2006, when Orascom’s share price dropped considerably, and the money Rami Antaki owed Joujou was long overdue. In July 2006, the Congolese President stepped in and told Rami Antaki to pay his daughter immediately.
Rami Antaki quickly organized the transfer of money (on behalf of his brother Christian Antaki), wiring 20 percent of the sale proceeds to Joujou in mid-2006. The bribe was complete.
Brandon Benstone | June 28, 2010.
Jounalist.
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It seems that shady Egyptian businessman Naguib Sawiris is stronger than freedom of speech on the Internet. Sawiris actually figured out a way to censor one of my blogs (www.blogster.com/thetruenaguibsawiris), because the information mentioned on it (which was proven and sourced) did not fit with the reputation he’s trying to build.
My blog before Naguib Sawiris’ censorship: the article was hard on the man, but based on facts and sources
Here’s the story: in late June, I created my own blog on the blogging site Blogster. I used the website to write, with journalistic materials found on the Web, what I think of Sawiris, and what a corrupt man he is.
It certainly did not please him; a few days later my blog was shut down and I was banned from the Blogster community.
My blog has since been shut down and I have been banned by Blogster: Thank you Mr. Sawiris!
So Blogster is afraid of this rich and powerful man! Fine! Thank God other blogging sites are more courageous (notably WordPress) and won’t delete publicly useful information just because a billionaire demands it.
Luckily for me (and unluckily for Naguib Sawiris), the fact that I was banned from Blogster has made me even more willing to spread the truth about Naguib Sawiris’ misconduct.
Brandon Benstone | June 28, 2010.
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Naguib Sawiris is a billionaire in a family of billionaires, and because of this fact he’s always been able to turn to his brothers or his father when he was in need of cash. Yet there have been moments in history when Naguib Sawiris reached out to less-than familial people as a result of running his companies into debt and taking unsound risks.
In 2001, for example, Naguib Sawiris bid what analysts said was a too-high price of USD 737 million for an Algerian license in what became Djezzy, Naguib Sawiris’ “crown jewel” mobile operator in Algeria. Naguib Sawiris needed financing to complete the deal but bankers recoiled from Orascom Telecom due to its financial status. “The company was heavily indebted. At the time, nobody wanted to touch Orascom,” an Arab banker said in a Time news story published on April 24, 2005. Orascom’s expansion wrecked its balance sheets, and financial statements from 2001 showed that Orascom lost around USD 102 million in revenue, with Orascom Telecom holding almost four times its equity in debts totaling GBP 10 billion. For a billionaire, Naguib Sawiris sure has a hard time managing his companies’ money.
In the process of selling off assets to pay his debts, Naguib Sawiris got financial support from an unusual source: the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Naguib Sawiris told Time reporters that he met Yasser Arafat only twice. And yet audits of Arafat’s financial life showed that Arafat used funds allocated to support the Palestinian cause to rescue Naguib Sawiris from financial difficulty in 2001 by putting huge cash injections into Orascom and three of its subsidiaries.
Arafat’s first investment in Orascom was around USD 65 million, which was put into Algeria-based Djezzy in 2001. Arafat also put USD 52 million into Orascom’s network in Tunisia, and when Naguib Sawiris proposed Arafat invest USD 60 million in Orascom’s holding company in the form of a convertible bond, Arafat asked him to reduce it to USD 20 million. Over the next year, Arafat and his financial adviser, Mohamed Rachid — who was accused by the Palestinian Legislative Council for squandering public funds — poured more than USD 200 million into Orascom Based on Arafat’s contributions to Orascom he should have taken possession of the company or at minimum become a major shareholder. And yet he did not. That’s because Naguib Sawiris paid Arafat in kickbacks to compensate the political leader for the money he contributed.
Flash forward. In November 2009, Algerian authorities charged Orascom with a USD 600 million tax claim and penalties for fiscal years 2004 to 2007. In 2010, Wind Hellas, Naguib Sawiris’ Greek subsidiary of Italy’s Wind Telecomunicazioni, another of Naguib Sawiris’ acquisitions, went bankrupt.
Too bad Arafat isn’t around to bail out Naguib Sawiris again. Naguib Sawiris seems to get a lot accomplished by stealing public funds from a respected leader in two simple meetings.
Brandon Benstone | July 12, 2010
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One of my recent favorite…let’s see how long it takes Swasiman to get to Mobile Syrup.
Wind faces €60m tax charge after inspection
From Dow Jones Newswires
Thursday 08 July 2010
Italian telco failed to pay 12.5% tax on bond issues over the last few years.
Italian telecommunications operator Wind SpA faces a EUR60 million tax charge after a tax police inspection discovered it didn’t pay a 12.5% tax on bond issues in the past few years, La Repubblica reports Thursday, citing what the Italian daily describes as reliable sources.
According to the report, Italian tax authorities suspect Wind issued the bonds through ad hoc Luxembourg-based companies in order to avoid paying taxes in Italy.
Wind wasn’t immediately available for a comment.
The paper adds that Wind–which is controlled by Weather Investments, the holding company of Egyptian financier Naguib Sawiris–may face a higher tax fine if the inspection expands to the overall EUR4 billion non-senior bonds issued by the parent company.
Italy’s second-biggest fixed-line telecoms operator, Wind said in May its debt at the end of March stood at EUR8.41 billion, down from EUR8.54 billion at the end of 2009.
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How about Time Magazine…can we trust them or should we go with the teenage Chimps from Wind?
When U.S. authorities in Iraq picked three companies last month to build a wireless telephone network for the country, they were pleased that no Americans were among the winners, a fact they hoped would silence those who charge that the Bush Administration is handing reconstruction contracts only to business cronies and campaign contributors. But some telecom-industry insiders complain that the winners of the licenses, which cost just $5 million but could eventually be worth as much as $1 billion a year, benefited from ties to prominent Iraqis on the U.S.-backed Governing Council. The majority partner in the consortium that was awarded the southern-Iraq license, for instance, is Dijla Telecommunications Corporation, a Baghdad outfit headed by Ali Shawkat, the son of Mudhar Shawkat, a senior adviser to Iraqi National Congress President Ahmad Chalabi. Coalition officials and the Shawkats denied to TIME that the family’s connections were behind the decision to grant Dijla the license. But others contend the deal reeks of cronyism. “The mobile contracts were all politically divided,” says an Iraqi emigre who returned as a consultant for a telecom firm. “It’s the same as Saddam’s time. It’s about who you know.”
Now another deal is coming under scrutiny. A senior Pentagon official told TIME that the U.S. is reviewing its decision to grant the mobile license for Baghdad and central Iraq to a consortium led by Egyptian telecom giant Orascom because of its ties to Nadhmi Auchi, an Iraqi-born billionaire who built his fortune partly through arms deals with the Iraqi regime in the 1980s. Industry sources say Auchi provided Orascom with a $20 million loan to help pay down its $500 million debt. The sources say the loan gave Auchi, who faced French prosecutors earlier this year for his role in a corruption and embezzlement scandal, a controlling stake in Orascom. A senior U.S. official says Orascom’s ties to Auchi are being investigated. As a result, no mobile licenses have yet been issued.
–By Romesh Ratnesar. With reporting by Hassan Fattah and Vivienne Walt
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1006184,00.html?iid=chix-sphere#ixzz0yIwcbaIL
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It shows 72 comments, how come only about 30 show up? Jawg has only one thing to say? I find that unbelievable, and Rocco/rockjock noting? not even a word? I would think he has lots to say here since hes newly banned from wind, and too much of a coward to act this way on howard forums, at least j**g tried to troll HoFo, got his pee pee slapped his very first day by the mods, it was classic.
I suspect little rocco and j**g are good friends, after all they share the same midget mentality. Probably some losers working at a second or third tier telco supplier with nothing better to do. If these two are examples of people involved in the big 3 telcom industry, it is no wonder that rogers et al are so scared, it would also explain people like roco/rockjock and j**g, people whos arrogance and ignorance involved with the telcom industry,have pissed of canadians for years. Now that there is some competition, they are like scared little boys, fearing for the future for the very first time.
Rant on lunatics, it looks good on you, the fear of the unknown. Keep on with the trolling and FUD, you both do more for winds cause than you know, everytime people like you speak, rogers along with all of the big 3 images is tarnished, they associate your tactics with those of the industy at which teat you suckle, and you know what they are correct in doing so, and with such impressions, Canadians are glad to support some new competition in wireless, they could give a f**k less who it is owned by. You miss that very important point in your guided blind rage, wind could be owned by hitler telco inc and it wouldnt mean a thing. The fact is that competion is good, we dont care where the money comes from, you just seemed to have missed that point.
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But I have been posting.. quite often in point of fact. RJ I do not know why he is not on the Wind forums perhaps he is out of the country again. being Mr H … ask mcnuts or Tammy they seem to know him well.. why not look at the links provided by all those you slam..? You do not because you would look like a fool.. to be honest we can point out flaw after flaw.. but it is Wind that is hurting itself.. network issues again.. and they do not know why? no answer to you the loyal subscriber.. you have a buffoon in a shiny suit telling all that he is the boss and yet the real owner comes to town and shows him for the clown he is. No where did anyone say the big 3 were the best.. all that has been said is that you want to play with the big boys you had better be ready for a bloody lip. ( not my quote but a good one ) network issues, top up still not as smooth as they can be, censorship, back rooms deals, pro wind trolls saying all is well and real people with real problems having posts deleted.. seems to me Orascom is running this show true to form. do the reading.. do some research.. go back and see some of the promises that were made then broken.. how is it that people inside wind have far different answers than the public ones? Union? less than a year and they talk of union.. now more tax issues.. Wind is not perfect that much is true.. point out all the flaws and then maybe just maybe they can get better.. but today right now.. no signal..
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You can tell who is in charge, Jabroni is standing behind the big boss.
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@hmm:
Everyone knows where to find me and so far no wimps have shown up,therefore the only cowards are Windies and that’s obvious from what they do here…they want to silence Free Speech and think that will help their meaningless cause.Furthermore,what do you or them contribute…absolutely nothing and like usual you proved you’re a total moron like your soul brothers.
Just for the record the Wind site censors individuals and HoFo is moderated by a bunch of kids,so what is your point and who cares what they think if they don’t even allow individuals to speak the truth…if they weren’t afraid of the truth they’d allow everyone to voice their opinions and obviously they lack integrity like most of you.
Maybe you don’t care where your money goes or who you support just so that you get slightly lower mobile rates,yet how does it feel that at one point in the past Canadian soldiers trying to liberate Iraq for freedom were being shot at/maybe killed by weapons from a dealer that invested in Orascom and went along with their scams…you’re a moron/hypocrite and you wear it well.Do you actually believe I care what you/some pimply faced kids on Wind/the losers on HoFo think…I take my hat off to Rocco/RJ/others who have the intelligence to research things that you lack before making choices and don’t spew garbage like you do just so that you can impress your little friends with a cheap Android on unlimited.
Too bad for you the articles I added/many more are fact and regardless what names you call me the facts will remain.
Thanks for proving you’re a complete FOOL because you probably would support Hitler…case closed!!!
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hmm.
Maybe Howie is deleting posts to keep the advertising money flowing. Do you ever think it may be a monetary reason for ones behavior?
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JAWG, intesting about north and south Korea. Maybe swamie gave Kim more money offshore.
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@tbr:
I think you’re right about Howie,maybe Swasiman got to him and that’s why he spruced up his site…those fake billions go a long way.
And the part you mentioned about North Korea has to be true,I mean what other reason would Swasiman have for establishing a banking network also in one of the most corrupt nations of the world and this is the man Wind picked as a backer…no wonder reputable corporations in N America/Europe turned them down and had no interest to deal with them.
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I read on Reuters that Orescam is selling Greece, Italy and Algeria. So much for swasi’s BS about not selling out to the Canadians. The kids will listen to this crap.
Look at the psychology in the marketing. They are playing to the emotions of getting back at the big three. Never mind about the shitty service windy has. You get the kids lined up to feel empowered. It’s beautifully orchestrated by swasi, I’m sure Jabroni is incapable of such thought.
I think that the more absurd comments become the more desperate they are.
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TBR you need to explain to the windies what Reuters is.. you see if it is not on windmobile they simply will not believe it.. go to the wind site and see how there are so many issues and yet the pro wind trolls say there are none… and oh look deleted posts again.. and none of jabroni network ninjas are able to solve the problem.. nice.
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So where did all the comments go…not good!
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it is far easier to delete posts than to answer them, this is the Orascom way so therefore the wind way.
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So why would the big 3 approach uncle swarie if, according to jabroni, he is not in control of wind and he is? By that comment Swarie has come out and said he, and his company run Wind. Any windies care to explain that? Why ask someone to sell you something unless you know they are in control and can do so. And what i***t talks about private business matters unless he is an i***t.
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Oh soooo ture! ” So why would the big 3 approach uncle swarie if, according to jabroni, he is not in control of wind and he is? By that comment Swarie has come out and said he, and his company run Wind. Any windies care to explain that? Why ask someone to sell you something unless you know they are in control and can do so. And what i***t talks about private business matters unless he is an i***t. ”
What can I say it’s true!
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Rocco, the children have not yet realized how corrupt the world is. They believe what they want to believe and can’t separate fantasy from reality.
Hooray, there is change coming to wireless in Canada. Maybe for a few years until the new boys get numbers and then they will join the rest.
Without government intervention nothing ever changes to benefit the consumer.
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My mobilicity reception has been near perfect. In a month of use, I’ve had 2 dropped calls.
The service I’ve received is on par with the service I had with Telus. Except, I pay a fraction of the cost at 39.55 for UNLIMITED calling in NORTH AMERICA anytime, UNLIMITED data, UNLIMITED texting, Caller ID AND VM.
I was on the tab for 120+ a month with Telus. I cannot thank Mobilicity enough for asking a fair price for their good service.
I highly recommend people to switch over. Unless you live at or within a km of the border zones, You wont have any problems with the service. Its all negative propoganda by the big three to convince you to stay.
I moved on and I’m loving every minute of it.
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