I was with Etisalat for a year and a half, and for most of that time spending 600 EGP/month for service. They acknowledged that there was poor coverage in my area and sent out someone to survey the area. Months later, they did nothing to fix it. I assumed that the poor reception was normal for everyone in my area until a friend switched to Vodafone and I saw he was not only getting good service, but decent 3G speeds as well.
I bought two SIM cards from Vodafone: one for my USB modem and another for my iPhone. I paid full price for my iPhone (5100 EGP) with NO contract. That's $750 USD; phones officially unlocked by Apple sell for $650 in the US. When I put a Vodafone SIM into it however, I discovered it was locked to Etisalat. No problem, I thought -- Etisalat can unlock it for me. Wrong. They denied even knowing how to unlock it and insisted it was Apple's fault -- who explicitly tells users that the carrier is the one who must unlock the phone. A manager from Etisalat actually asked why I don't just take it to a back alley mobile shop and have them unlock it.
That's not a bad idea . . . except for some reason everyone in Egypt can unlock any carrier except Etisalat (despite the fact that they sell their iPhones unlocked in their home country, UAE). I refused to give Etisalat one penny however by remaining a subscriber; and I refused to sell the a locked phone and let Etisalat gain another subscriber. Instead, I paid $170 to have a global unlock performed on the phone through an Internet service. The phone works great now.
Etisalat provides the service you should expect from any Arab-based company: none!
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