Vodafone has revealed new details about the internet and mobile phone blackout that occurred during Egypt's 25 January Revolution. An official security source told Al-Masry Al-Youm that the decision to cut communication services was a decision ex-president Hosni Mubarak was aware of.
Hatem Dweidar, executive director for Vodafone Egypt, said security authorities summoned representatives of mobile phone companies on 23 January — two days before the revolution started — and told them the security situation required a suspension of the service.
Dweidar added the companies had no option but to obey, as the law allows security authorities to implement such action themselves if companies refuse.
He said Vodafone received orders to cut off service in Tahrir Square on 25 January, adding that the company contacted the other two mobile phone operators — Mobinil and Etisalat — to see if they received similar orders, and when they confirmed they had, Vodafone severed its service.
On 28 January — or the "Friday of Anger" — the company received orders by phone to cut off service in Cairo, Alexandria, Suez and Daqahliya.
Dweidar said his company possesses recorded voice messages of the orders, given by senior security bodies.
On the same day security authorities cut off Telecom Egypt's internet service and asked all internet companies in Egypt to disable the local network.
Mobile operators asked the government to issue a statement on 28 January to explain to the public that the decision to suspend service was made according to Law 10/2003 on communications. However, Dweidar said, the government left the companies to bear the blame.
The same law, he said, states that mobile operators and internet service providers should be compensated when their service is forcibly severed. However, the law only states they should be compensated in the event of direct losses, without defining what these are and how they could be differentiated from indirect losses.
Vodafone, he said, has put forward a proposal to amend this law to limit the powers granted to security authorities, which can cut off all communication services without reference to any other authority.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
