Vodafone Egypt said on Tuesday it plans to add 100,000 customers of wireless broadband access in 2009, bringing its total customer base to 160,000 broadband.

Hatem Dowidar Chief Executive Officer told Reuters that it was a "high growth" in its broadband business, but the pace of expansion will not affect services.

"We expect a further 100,000 mobile data users by the end of the year," Dowidar said in an interview as part of an economic conference in Cairo.

Officials at Vodafone said the company had 60,000 mobile broadband users by end 2008.

Analysts number of broadband users around 1 million, suggesting Vodafone Egypt was a 10 percent or more of the market. "This will give Vodafone a significant share of broadband market in Egypt," said HC Brokerage sauerkraut Nemat’s.

The numbers refer to the products of broadband wireless Internet for use in PCs and is independent of Internet access through the accounts of the mobile phone company.

Reflecting the increase in mobile broadband users, an official said 3.5 million Vodafone customers to access the Internet through mobile phones in August, compared to 2.5 million in February.

Fixed-line monopoly of the state, Telecom Argentina, which has a market share of 45 per cent in Vodafone Egypt, is the only provider of fixed-line Internet in Egypt.

To expand the use of mobile phones beyond voice calls, said Dowidar Vodafone Egypt is trying to offer mobile money transfers in the country of 77 million, the most populous state in the Arab world.

These operations usually involve the transfer of micro of up to 5,000 Egyptian pounds ($ 910) between two mobile users.

"We are offering a complete solution of communication," he said.

Telecom Egypt, said in its second quarter earnings statement that Vodafone Egypt has added 1.43 million subscribers for a total of 20.4 million in late June.

Egypt has more than 50 million mobile phone subscribers, but felt Dowidar second SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) or network cards and phones account for 20 to 25 percent of that number, as users take interest in the determination of network prices.

He said the market is saturated and 80 percent of the population, but said that this percentage including mobile secondary

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