Tag: telecommunication

State-owned ISP blocks Kefaya website

Posted on By 3arabawy

From AFP:

A government-owned internet service provider has blocked the website of a leading opposition movement, a rights group said Monday, in the latest crackdown on the country’s cyber dissidents.
“The website for the Egyptian Movement for Change — Kefaya has been blocked in Egypt [for] users who have access to the internet through TE-Data … since May 4,” the Arab Network for Human Rights Information (HRinfo) said in a statement.
TE-Data, a branch of Telecom Egypt and the largest internet service provider (ISP) in Egypt, is controlled by the Egyptian government.
The censorship came as Egypt seeks to promote its information and communication technology industry by hosting the International Telecommunication Union conference, which President Hosni Mubarak opened on Monday.
“The website is performing normally with other ISPs, but the technical supervisor of the website informed us that the TE-Data Co. blocked Kefaya website through the IP address,” Kefaya website editor Samir Gad told HRinfo.

Read the full HRINFO statement here.

Mubarak’s pigs order mobile firms to bar anonymous users

Posted on By 3arabawy

From Reuters:

Egypt has asked mobile phone companies to block service to anonymous subscribers as a public security measure, and at least two firms have begun efforts to comply, Egyptian officials and mobile firms said on Monday.
The move comes as Egypt tries to combat a wave of public discontent over rising prices and low wages that have sparked a series of labor and anti-government strikes, organized largely by mobile phone and over the Internet.
The move is expected to affect several hundred thousand customers who did not register their names and addresses when they acquired phone lines — still a small portion of overall subscribers in the most populous Arab country.
“Everyone who uses the telephone must be known,” Trade Minister Rachid Muhammad Rachid told a news conference, adding that the move was needed for “public security.”
Vodafone Egypt, one of three mobile operators in Egypt, has started disabling text messaging capabilities for anonymous subscribers, and was asking them to come forward with their details, a company spokesman said.
Rival operator Mobinil linked the move to government plans for mobile number portability, which would allow subscribers to change service providers while keeping their original phone numbers.

Disabling Vodafone SMS in Egypt!?

Posted on By 3arabawy

Can someone please try to validate that?

Richard Daly the CEO of Vodafone Egypt has been called by the Egyptian Communication Ministry office coriander late at night, at about 11:00 pm attend an emergency meeting and asked him to limit all mobile phones that do not have registration data with Vodafone Egypt which can not be accessed their data when needed, and ordered to close down its short message service for these phones as a way to reduce the risks that could come from behind the coming strike of 4th of May 4 the next!

[Via Zeinobia]