The world, especially the technology community, was taken aback when Egypt shut down its Internet and mobile phone access barely a week ago. An evident concern was the country’s capability to promptly recover after it resolved to cut its most critical link on world communication and commerce.
Egypt justified its move by citing widespread civil unrest. Apparently, the Egyptian government chose to wipe itself off the world’s online maps over considering its vast potential loss in terms of credibility with the Internet community and the world economy.
The end was yet to justify the means.
But these speculations need to soon enough move over because Egypt is back online, with net access quickly returning to normal. Connectivity has been recently restored including 3G mobile networks and BlackBerry services. Facebook and Twitter are now also available and the four major Egyptian internet service providers are back in business.
It is of note that even before the government ordered the reinstatement of Internet and mobile phone access, alternative services came forth, offering digital information to propagate, most famous of which is speak2tweet by Google, Twitter and SayNow. This allowed Twitter updates to be dictated by voicemail messages, effectively bypassing Internet closure through telephone calls.
And even if it is still unclear to what extent the offline period will prove to have affected the Egyptian economy, one thing was made clear--technology still found its way around the authoritarian blockade.
Indeed, ICT has become invincible.
Indeed, ICT has become invincible.
News Sources: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12346929; http://www.slashgear.com/egypt-back-online-internet-3g-blackberry-reported-working-02129921/; http://articles.sfgate.com/2011-01-29/business/27090014_1_internet-access-egyptian-people-facebook-and-twitter
- Phebean Belle A. Ramos, entry #11
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