EXCLUSIVE: Naguib Sawiris, Orascom’s chairman and CEO (pictured left), has said that the company’s fledgling North Korean mobile business is on track to notch up 100,000 customers by the end of the year. In an interview with the GSMA’s Mobile World Live portal, Sawiris said that the operator – known as ‘Koryolink’ – had attracted 42,000 subscribers to date and that the strong growth was proof that the service is being used by ordinary citizens in the notoriously totalitarian state. “We have 42,000 people carrying our phones, and these are being provided to the normal working people, not just the elite,” said Sawiris. “We are doing a lot of good by being there. Communications helps people to develop their lives and helps democracy. We will reach 100,000 [subscribers] by year-end.” The mobile network is currently the only one in the country after an earlier network was shut down five years ago. 

Launched in December 2008, Koryolink – a joint-venture between Orascom (75 percent) and the local state-owned body, Korea Posts and Telecom Corp (25 percent) – had signed up 33,000 subscribers by the end of June, according to Wireless Intelligence data. Reports last month suggested that almost 30 percent of citizens in the country’s capital city, Pyongyang, are using the service. However, many restrictions remain; government officials cannot reportedly own devices for fear of circulating confidential information, whilst the general public may only use phones in their own name and cannot own more than one device. According to earlier reports, Koryolink reportedly aims to expand the network to the entire country by 2012.