Egyptian riots put dent in Vodafone's growth

The company has come under heavy fire for agreeing to demands by former president Hosni Mubarak's regime to suspend the Egyptian Vodafone network during the January uprising, and for sending four propaganda messages by text to its customers. All voice services were cancelled for 24 hours, impeding contact with the outside world at a critical time, and data services were shut down for five days.

Vodafone has fought back against criticism of the move, claiming it was forced to pull the plug for the safety of its staff and that Egyptian users understood the circumstances in a way that overseas commentators did not. "We see no sign of a loss of momentum in that business," a spokesman added.

However, resentment against Vodafone does not seem to have gone away. The company's most recent TV advertising campaign in Egypt appears to have back-fired. The mobile operator launched a "thank you" campaign this month, encouraging users to use Twitter to send messages of gratitude to their friends and family for Ramadan. However users hijacked the campaign to express their fury, writing messages like "thanks for nothing Vodafone".