Egypt’s three mobile phone operators announced the adoption of technical precautions they would take Wednesday to handle an expected increase in network activity during presidential voting.

The first round of the election is set to take place on Wednesday and Thursday.

Officials from the companies said there would be unprecedented pressure on their SMS and call services over the two days of the election because Egypt has not had such an event in decades.

They said they have emergency plans to avoid any service delays or breakdowns.

Khaled Hegazy, director of government relations at Vodafone Egypt, said the heated competition between candidates would cause a surge in SMS traffic and calls, both of which would be used for candidate publicity.

Hegazy said mobile phone operators would have plans to deal with peak levels of usage, as they did for the parliamentary elections, large protests, the time of the announcement of college-entry exam results and major football matches.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm