Vodafone Egypt experienced a major disruption in telecom and internet services late Tuesday, with users across the country reporting outages.
The failure was caused by technical errors during efforts to fix damage from the July 7 fire at the Ramses exchange building in downtown Cairo, a source at the Ministry of Communications told Al Manassa.
According to the source, engineers attempted to boost network capacity in response to earlier fire-related disruptions, but did so incorrectly. “This misstep resulted in system-wide instability,” they explained.
The July 7 blaze had engulfed the 11-story Ramses exchange, damaging core servers and cables, which triggered widespread service interruptions in the days that that followed.
Several Vodafone customers reported on social media that internet access was restored for free during the recent outage, which the source confirmed was an unintended consequence of the flawed network expansion attempt.
“It was an unintended consequence of the failed configuration,” they explained.
They added that Vodafone was the hardest-hit operator in the aftermath of the Ramses fire, with 80% of its services initially knocked offline. Though gradual restoration is now underway in affected areas, full resolution is anticipated within the week.
“Restoring service sometimes requires a complete cut to recalibrate the system,” the official explained, nothing that Vodafone is required to compensate users for the service disruption, whether for mobile or internet access.
In a brief message to costumers on Tuesday night, Vodafone Egypt said it was working to ensure services return to normal but offered no further details.
