thomsona@flash.net
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 Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2008 7:53 pm Post subject: GPS in Egypt (and Syria and North Korea) |
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http://dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=16972
Ban on commercial use of GPS in Egypt has consumers frustrated
By Tamim Elyan
First Published: October 9, 2008
CAIRO: Technology lovers and modern car owners in Egypt consider
themselves unlucky because of a government ban on the usage of Global
Positioning System (GPS) technology.
Telecoms Law 10/2003 outlaws the import of GPS-equipped mobile phones,
and retailers found selling them could lead to the confiscation of
their entire stock. The same applies to any kind of commercial use of
GPS technology, which includes cars equipped with GPS devices.
Mobile phones like the Nokia N95, N82 as well as iPhones and some 3G
phones are banned in Egypt, leaving the market deprived of the latest
technology and features that are fast becoming standard in the new
generation of mobile phones.
GPS helps users navigate to their destination inside cities and in
remote areas. It also functions as a guide for places of interest as
well as hospitals, police departments and businesses.
Security factor
“GPS is allowed in Egypt but you must have a license after getting
approval from security authorities,” Sherif Guinena, vice chairman of
the National Telecommunication Regulator Agency (NTRA), told Daily
News Egypt.
“No doubt this technology is very important, brand new service and a
big advantage if it is allowed, but we have to abide to security laws;
because when we give a license to any new communication device we need
the approval of the board which represents all state agencies,”
Guinena added.
“There have been negotiations between us and the authorities to allow
GPS commercial use but we didn’t reach anything yet,” he said
[snip]
Today, only three countries in the world still ban the commercial use
of GPS: Egypt, Syria and North Korea.
But while GPS technology is prohibited in the country, millions of
Egyptians use free software everyday to find locations and plan
routes. Google Earth, for example, maps the earth by the
superimposition of images obtained from satellite imagery, aerial
photography and GIS 3D globe and uses digital elevation model (DEM)
data collected by NASA’s Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM).
Moreover, the ban on certain mobile phones may mean they are not
easily found in the market, but they’re certainly not out of reach of
users’ hands. Many of these models are smuggled into the country
through airports or brought in by Egyptians living abroad.
“I bought my mobile from outside Egypt and got it in through the
backdoors,” said one N95 mobile owner who spoke on condition of
anonymity. “It is banned in Egypt, that is why I have to keep it
secret,” he added.
While they do get to use the latest gadgets, owners of banned mobile
phones forgo their warranty rights as well as maintenance and other
after sale services.
GPS devices are also commonly used in desert safaris. When 19 tourists
were kidnapped in the desert between Sudan and Egypt earlier this
month, they used their GPS devices to inform authorities of their
exact location, which facilitated the rescue operation.
“GPS is used in safari tours and the devices are mainly brought in
from outside Egypt because we can’t use it officially,” Mohamed Hazem,
who organizes safaris, told Daily News Egypt.
“The GPS devices are separate device which can be bought from Egypt
from Bernasious stationery but we have first to issue a license from
the Ministry of Interior or they are brought from outside into Egypt
like any other device,” Hazem said
GPS technology is useful in finding routes inside the desert by a
method called waypoints, where the device saves a certain dimension in
the map which can be used later.
Corporate double standards?
The government’s decision to ban GPS spurred frustration among mobile
phones manufacturers as well.
Last June, Finnish manufacturer Nokia and the Egyptian government were
in a row over the decision to ban GPS equipped phones from entering
the country.
“We negotiated with the Egyptian government a lot but they insisted on
their position and we aren’t responsible for illegal smuggling of
banned devices,”
Eddy Rezq, Nokia regional manager, told Al-Masry Al-Youm at the time.
Users expressed their anger on several web forums, especially people
who arrived from Arab countries with GPS-equipped devices only to find
that they aren’t allowed to use them.
“Unlike Nokia enthusiasts all over the world, we Egyptians find it
another reason to grief about our bad luck, Nokia’s irresponsibility
and stupid laws,” said Kirollos Fares on his N-series blog.
“We know that Egypt isn’t quiet the market that Nokia has its eye on,
but Nokia rarely ignores the laws enforced by other countries, like
Nokia releasing WiFi-Free phones for China, and N78’s without FM-
Transmitters for countries that ban it like France, so why can’t it do
the same thing here?” he questioned.
Like other users, Fares wanted Nokia to remove the GPS chip from their
phones so people can enjoy the other features.
“There’s no way to even discuss this issue now,” Nicholas Savander,
the company’s vice president and director of services and programs
told Business Monthly. “We’ve recently launched the second generation
of Nokia’s Smart Maps application designed primarily on GPS. This
application [offers] maps of cities, restaurants, malls and recreation
venues.”
“Over 40 percent of all handsets produced by Nokia within the next two
years will support GPS-based applications,” Savander said, adding that
it is absurd to consider changing course at this point.
“Who would regress to meet the demands of markets that refuse to keep
up with progress when we’re moving at a fast pace towards developing
and devising new technologies?” he added.
Nokia along with other mobile manufacturers are taking Egypt’s
government to court to revoke this ban.
Blind mapping
Meanwhile, another business sector that has continued to suffer
because of the ban is the mapping and geographical services sector.
“We opened two years ago and since then we haven’t worked because of
the ban on the commercial use of GPS in Egypt. Our business depends
solely on GPS and we don’t have other activities,” Walid Ramadan, head
of the maps department at GPS Egypt, told Daily News Egypt.
“We are waiting. They constantly tell us that GPS will be allowed
soon, but when this will happen, nobody knows,” Ramadan said
GPS Egypt is a branch for Superbase Developers plc, a leading software
company based in Cambridge, UK, offering services like GPS navigation
software and hardware and GPS-based active and passive tracking for
goods transportation.
“Our future isn’t clear; we are waiting for the approval to start
operating in Egypt,” Ramadan said.
Dotmap is another company that works in the field of mapping and
geographical information systems (GIS) and its business is also
affected by the GPS ban.
“Because GPS is illegal, we resort to genuine methods like deploying
surveyors in the streets and using satellite images,” Walaa Hassan,
head of the geo data department at Dotmap, told Daily News Egypt.
“It would differ very much for our work if we were allowed to use
GPS,” Hassan said
[snip] |
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