5:54 PM
chethan
28 th Jan 2011
Egypt has cut off nearly all Internet traffic into and out of the country in the largest blackout of its kind, according to firms that monitor international data flows. Cellphone networks were also disrupted.
Vodafone said in a statement on its Web site that "all mobile operators in Egypt have been instructed to suspend services in selected areas." The company said it was "obliged to comply" with the order.
Egypt has been trying to contain growing protests that have been fueled in part by videos and other information shared over social networks like Facebook and Twitter. text:
Renesys, a Vermont- based company that tracks Internet traffic, said that just after midnight Cairo time, or 5 p.m. New York time, Egyptian authorities had succeeded in shutting down the country's international access points. "Almost nobody in Egypt has Internet connectivity, and there are no workarounds," said Jim Cowie, the company's chief technology officer.
"I've never seen it happen at this scale." "In a fundamental sense, it's as if you rewrote the map and they are no longer a country," said Mr. Cowie. "I never thought it would happen to a country the size and scale of Egypt." text:
In most countries, the points of access to the global Internet infrastructure are many and distributed. But Mr. Cowie said that Egypt was relatively late in widely adopting the Internet, so it has fewer access points.
The government can shut these down with "six, or even four phone calls," he said.
A Facebook spokesman, Andrew Noyes, said the company had seen a drop in traffic from Egypt since Thursday. "Although the turmoil in Egypt is a matter for the Egyptian people and their government to resolve, limiting Internet access for millions of people is a matter of concern for the global community," he said in a statement.
In an interview, Mr. Noyes said the company was still seeing some traffic coming in from Egypt, but that it was "minimal."
Vodafone said in a statement on its Web site that "all mobile operators in Egypt have been instructed to suspend services in selected areas." The company said it was "obliged to comply" with the order.
Egypt has been trying to contain growing protests that have been fueled in part by videos and other information shared over social networks like Facebook and Twitter. text:
Renesys, a Vermont- based company that tracks Internet traffic, said that just after midnight Cairo time, or 5 p.m. New York time, Egyptian authorities had succeeded in shutting down the country's international access points. "Almost nobody in Egypt has Internet connectivity, and there are no workarounds," said Jim Cowie, the company's chief technology officer.
"I've never seen it happen at this scale." "In a fundamental sense, it's as if you rewrote the map and they are no longer a country," said Mr. Cowie. "I never thought it would happen to a country the size and scale of Egypt." text:
In most countries, the points of access to the global Internet infrastructure are many and distributed. But Mr. Cowie said that Egypt was relatively late in widely adopting the Internet, so it has fewer access points.
The government can shut these down with "six, or even four phone calls," he said.
A Facebook spokesman, Andrew Noyes, said the company had seen a drop in traffic from Egypt since Thursday. "Although the turmoil in Egypt is a matter for the Egyptian people and their government to resolve, limiting Internet access for millions of people is a matter of concern for the global community," he said in a statement.
In an interview, Mr. Noyes said the company was still seeing some traffic coming in from Egypt, but that it was "minimal."
0 comments:
Post a Comment