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Renesys, an U.S.-based company that monitors Internet traffic, was the first to report the unusual behavior, observing the simultaneous withdrawal of all routes to Egyptian networks in the Internet's global routing table.
"Critical European-Asian fiber-optic routes through Egypt appear to be unaffected for now. But every Egyptian provider, every business, bank, Internet cafe, website, school, embassy, and government office that relied on the big four Egyptian ISPs for their Internet connectivity is now cut off from the rest of the world. Link Egypt, Vodafone/Raya, Telecom Egypt, Etisalat Misr, and all their customers and partners are, for the moment, off the air." This message was posted on Renesys' blog at 22:34 GMT. Based on continuous monitoring throughout the day, it's estimated that 93% of Egypt-based networks are still unreachable.
The blackout which might be the largest of its kind so far, has also affected cell phone communication. Vodafone, one of the wireless providers in the country, disclosed this morning that "all mobile operators in Egypt have been instructed to suspend services in select areas."
Totalitarian regimes are known for controlling media exposure when widespread protests occur, but with the proliferation of real-time web-based communication this is simply another step in the ladder for total media and civil control. You can find live updates on the Egypt protests here and here.
Image credit: Arbor Networks
User Comments: 30
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Its stories like this which makes me grateful that I live in Australia. Democracy may not be perfect but its working pretty good here, even with all the booze, sports, and sex & entertainment
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Its stories like this which makes me grateful that I live in Australia. Democracy may not be perfect but its working pretty good here, even with all the booze, sports, and sex & entertainmentHuh....? I thought that booze, sports, sex and entertainment are the very essence of democracy....!
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Update; I resurrected this thread to illustrate what I've been saying all along, extremist groups are fanning the flames in Egypt from the shadows.
If any of you are still harboring idealistic or (IMHO) naive ideas that these people aren't being caused to "stampede", as it were, then you should have a look at this BBC News page.
It appears the "Muslim Brotherhood" (a banned Muslim extremist group), is going to "condescend" (translation, "do everybody a big favor),by stepping in to "negotiate" the removal of the Mubarak government.
[link]
And the attempt to force the creation of another Islamic theocracy, has possibly begun.
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I was afraid that the Muslim Brotherhood would fill the power vacuum; they're practically another version of the Iranian fascist state and Egypt's been their seat of power for years.
I'm a Muslim, but I hate governments like Iran and especially Saudi Arabia, that claim to espouse Islamic ideals, but run a police state with their own agenda in mind. Islam does not preach intolerance, contrary to what may be portrayed otherwise.
On the flipside, is dial-up still the only way to get online in Egypt?
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They had the second in command of the Muslim Brotherhood on the UK daily politics show a few days back...Very cool customer if you ask me (cool as in answering the questions very well).
It does look sad for Egypt at the minute, i hope the US gets involved more before it's too late.
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