Arabia.com, EgyNet form partnership

Arabia.com has launched a free Internet access in Egypt through its partnership with the Egyptian data carrier, EgyNet.

By downloading the arabia.com Internet dialer, Egypt's Web users can now just pay the price of the telephone call to gain access to the Internet.

"With over 100,000 registered arabia.com users in Egypt we felt it was important to offer our customers in the region the option of this free service", said Ramzi Zeine, chief executive of arabia.com.

"Egypt continues to be a rapidly growing market for us and we are constantly looking at new ways to develop in this country."

To initiate this free access from arabia.com, users need to log onto www.arabia.com and click the 'Free Internet Access' icon under the Egyptian section. The site will then prompt them through four steps to connect them to the dialer and designated 0777 7778 arabia.com number.

In 2006, Internet users in Egypt are projected to exceed 2.6 million, up from an estimated 540,000 in 2001, according to the Arab Advisors Group.

Abdel Rahman El Sawy, chairman of EgyNet said, "The Internet is now an essential daily service to a large proportion of people and the easier we can make it to gain access the better. arabia.com offers a lot of variety to Internet users in the Arab world and we are pleased to help them offer yet another value added service."

The free Internet model commenced in Egypt in January 2002. It is believed that the free model will eventually increase the number of Internet users in the country. Under the new model, users no longer pay a subscription fee to their ISP. Instead, they pay for their phone calls.

The arabia.com portal combines communities, news, communication and search services, and is owned by Arabia Online.

EgyNet was awarded a Class A License from the Telecom Regulatory Authority to build, operate and manage Internet infrastructure network in the Egypt. The network was built by Lucent Technology.