Telecoms operator Vodafone said in January it and other mobile operators had no option but to comply with an order from the authorities to suspend services in selected areas of the country during the peak of the anti-government demonstrations.
In February, Vodafone also accused the authorities of using its network to send pro-government text messages to subscribers.
Communications and Information Technology Minister Maged Othman said his ministry planned to pay compensation estimated at around 100 million pounds to mobile telecoms operators for losses caused by the service disruption, the state news agency MENA said. It said the figure was reached by independent bodies.

The operators have had a moral obligation to say no. And no matter what “national security” obligations they signed onto when receiving their license from the state, they could have sent out warnings to the millions of customers prior to cutting the service, which could have saved lives.

And if Mubarak, Nazif and Adly were found found guilty, what about Mubarak’s minister of telecommunication, Tarek Kamel? Not only is he off the hook, but he’s been rewarded a seat in the NTRA board of directors, where General Rushdi el-Qamari still keeps his position.

The money should not go to the companies. The money should be go to the families of the martyrs and injured whose lives could have been saved if the telecommunication network was up and running during the uprising.

Can activists in the UK sue the mother company?

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]