‘Egypt internet blockade only affected traffic with foreign countries’

Contrary to expectations, the Egyptian government did not completely shut down the internet during the demonstrations. Only international uplinks went offline, an American newspaper reported, but that made connections useless.

When Egypt was cut off from the internet at the end of January, the initial thought was that all internet connections would go offline, including connections between domestic nodes. That’s different, reports The New York Times; only the uplinks to foreign countries would have been taken offline. Connections between Egyptian nodes were still possible, but not noticeable; many Egyptians use services hosted outside of that country.

An owner of a small Egyptian isp also indicates that he could set up a local IRC server, for example, but that the necessary software was not available because he had to download it from a foreign server. Due to the heavy reliance on internet services abroad, the Egyptian internet had thus become virtually useless.

The American newspaper also reveals that Vodafone resisted when it was told it had to take its telephone network offline. The provider has been criticized for cooperating with the Egyptian rulers by taking its network off the air, but according to The New York Times, the telco would have had little choice. The authorities threatened to shut down the network themselves if Vodafone refused to cooperate. As a result, it would take Vodafone much more time to restore the connections.

The government in Egypt restricted internet and telephone traffic to quell the large-scale protests. That didn’t help much; dictator Hosni Mubarak resigned last week. It was already announced on Monday that Egyptian providers will compensate customers for damage suffered; they don’t have to pay a subscription fee for half a month.