Egypt enters communication blackout with disruption to internet, SMS, and BlackBerry messaging

We don’t know what exactly is going on over in Egypt, but the country’s government seems to have decided that keeping in touch with the outside world is no longer desirable and has almost completely shut down internet, SMS, and BlackBerry communications. It’s not surprising, therefore, that reports are emerging in rather piecemeal form at the moment, though Renesys has hard data showing that almost all routes for exchanging internet traffic with the country have been shut down, with only Noor Group excepted from the block — a move the internet analytics company theorizes might have been motivated by a desire to keep the Egyptian Stock Exchange online. The reasons for this blackout remain open to speculation and interpretation — most of which, we remind you, has better destinations than your favorite tech blog — but its content is clearly an extreme step for any government to take. Check out the links below for further details. [Image credit: seandenigris.com ] Egypt enters communication blackout with disruption to internet, SMS, and BlackBerry messaging originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 Jan 2011 04:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

Posted by on January 28, 2011. Filed under News, Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry