Egypt devalues mobile recharge cards by 36 percent

Egypt's National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority ratified on Thursday evening a decision by mobile companies to decrease the value of the mobile recharging cards by 36 percent, starting Friday.
The acting president of the authority, Mostafa Abdel-Wahed, told state news agency MENA on Friday that the price points of the internet and the cards will not change, but the value that they purchase will decrease.

Abdel-Wahed said that customer will obtain 70 percent of the price of the card in charging credit.

For example, he said, the EGP 100 recharging card will give EGP 70 credit, the EGP 50 card will give EGP 35 credit, the EGP 25 will provide EGP 17.5 credit, and so on.

The decision was met with strong criticism on social media, and sparked campaigns calling for a partial boycott of mobile companies.