RIM move to increase Egyptian’s interest in the Communications industry

Egypt’s telecom sector is viewed as the “only bright spot in the country’s stable economy”.

RIM displayed the BlackBerry 10 during the BlackBerry Jam 10 World Tour in Cairo, Egypt. More than 250 developers attended the event. According to Egypt’s Information Technology Institute (ITI), the BlackBerry App World has benefited from a strong pipeline of locally relevant content and mobile apps provided by Egyptian developers.

The Information Technology Institute (ITI) is a leading national institute tasked with establishing training programmes and helping the Egyptian technology community create relevant solutions for customers.

The Egyptian government is now looking to invest in the mobile and telecom industry with new infrastructure development by mid 2013. In 2011 during a political unrest in the country, reports indicated that the Blackberry services had been blocked to check against citizen journalism.

“I think this is a great way to develop the sector by showing off the most recent and trendiest products that are being made available in Egypt,” said a representative from one of the mobile operators, Mobinil.

According to Ben Quirin, Regional Director for Research in Motion (RIM) North Africa, Egypt has always been known as a regional hotbed of talented app developers and digital
entrepreneurs.

“In collaboration with organisations such as the ITI, we are committed to bringing the latest tools, training and resources to enable the Egyptian developer community to produce fantastic, locally- and globally-relevant apps and mobile content,” he said.

He added that the turnout at the Egyptian’s BlackBerry 10 Jam event in Cairo reinforces the importance of the BlackBerry platform to the thriving developer community. The event was established earlier this year as a promotional and motivational move into mobile telephony.