January 31st, 2011 by 
David Goldstein
As recently as a week ago, Egypt’s internet was extraordinary in the Arab world for its freedom. For more than a decade, the regime has adhered to a hands-off policy, leaving unblocked everything from rumours about President Hosni Mubarak’s health to videos of police beatings. Unlike most of its regional neighbours and other authoritarian regimes, Egypt’s government never built or required sophisticated technical infrastructures of censorship. (Of course, the country has hardly been a paradise of free expression: the state security forces have vigorously suppressed dissent through surveillance, arbitrary detentions and relentless intimidation of writers and editors.) … more
January 31st, 2011 by David Goldstein
Fax machines, ham radio and dial-up modems are helping to avoid the net block imposed on Egypt. … more
January 31st, 2011 by David Goldstein
As of approximately 20:46 UTC, four hours after this blog was first published, Noor started disappearing from the Internet. They are completely unavailable at present as shown below
As we observed last week, Egypt took the unprecedented step of withdrawing from the Internet. The government didn’t simply block Twitter and Facebook (an increasingly common tactic of regimes under fire), but rather they apparently ordered most major Egyptian providers to cease service via their international providers, effectively removing Egyptian IP space from the global Internet and cutting off essentially all access to the outside world via this medium. The only way out now would be via traditional phone calls, assuming they left that system up, or via satellite. We thought the Internet ban would be temporary, but much to our surprise, the situation has not changed. One of the few Egyptian providers reachable today, four days after the start of the crisis, is The Noor Group. In this blog, we’ll take a quick look at them and some of the businesses they serve. … more
January 31st, 2011 by David Goldstein
Telstra and Optus have begun the mucky task of cleaning and repairing the damage caused by Queensland’s devastating floods but full restoration of infrastructure is still some weeks off. … more
January 31st, 2011 by David Goldstein
The African Union (AU) has unveiled plans for a single standardised Sim card for all African mobile phone operators. AU Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy, Elham Ibrahim, said a study on the introduction of a single African SIM card has been underway and is expected to be completed within a month. … more
January 30th, 2011 by David Goldstein
Egypt’s crackdown on the net and mobile phones amid protests against President Mubarak is unprecedented in the history of the web, experts said. … more
Google’s Android overtook the long-time market leader, Nokia’s Symbian, as the world’s most popular smartphone platform in the fourth quarter, according to the research firm Canalys. 
India rejected on Monday Research In Motion’s (RIM) offer to allow it only partial access to its BlackBerry data services as neighbouring Pakistan also moved to restrict the popular smartphone’s services. 
The Federal Communications Commission filed motions on Friday to dismiss what it calls “premature” lawsuits from Verizon and, more recently, MetroPCS over net neutrality.