Cuts in mobile and Internet connections were a lose-lose situation, writes Nader Habib Last decade's communications revolution changed the lives of millions of people in this country, most of all the young. Often, the young were accused of wasting their time on the Internet, chatting or playing videogames or even watching porn. Now that the Facebook generation has staged a full- fledged revolution, their critics may have to revise some of their preconceived ideas. On the Day of Anger, as Friday 28 January has been dubbed, the Security Forces took an unprecedented step to hinder the protests. They cut off the Internet and told the country's three mobile phone companies to shut down their services. The measure was disruptive to the country's economy, but it didn't stop the demonstrators from taking to the streets. In cyberspace, the revolution did not lack friends. Google and Twitter both offered a new service enabling Egyptians to bypass the Internet ban. The new service, called "talk to tweet", allowed people to post messages on Twitter through a regular phone line. People without Internet services could listen to those messages by calling the same number. Google staff said they had to work overtime through the weekend to create the new service. "Like many people, we've been glued to the news unfolding in Egypt and thinking of what we could do to help people on the ground," says Ujjwal Singh, co-founder of SayNow. Press World News, an independent news agency, called on volunteers to translate voice messages from Arabic to foreign languages and coordinated with Skype to post the translated messages on the Internet. Volunteers with knowledge of English, French, German and other languages, as well as Arabic, immediately offered their services. On 2 February, Internet services were back in Egypt, while their absence had caused major disruption to parts of the economy. Facebook and Blackberry messages were also restored. On 1 February, Prime Minister Ahmed Shafik had said that Internet would be resumed, promising that his government would support freedom of expression. Over 200 million people worldwide use Facebook, the service protesters used to organise in Cairo and other Egyptians cities. But how did people react to the absence of the Internet and the disruption of phone services? "To my knowledge, the companies have received orders from security officials to stop the service. They told the companies that the measure was in the interests of the country, so they disconnected communications," says Fadel Tawfik, a businessman. Although he sympathises with the communications companies, Tawfik was very angry for losing his telephone service. "On that day, my son was out of the house attending a private lesson. I couldn't reach him because of the disruption of communications. Disturbances had erupted and I couldn't reach my boy." Marian Fouad, computer engineer, says that she had no idea the security services had such power over the communications companies. "I was greatly affected by the Internet disruption," Fouad said. "I wanted to get in touch with my husband in America and I couldn't do so. I was very annoyed at the companies that provide Internet and communications services. I didn't know that the Egyptian authorities had this kind of power, and I was horrified to discover that the Egyptian security can give an order to a private company, a company that gets its money from me and not from the Egyptian security. My friends and I thought maybe we should discontinue our subscription with the three telephone companies. Just as people got together to change politics in this country, we can get together and discontinue our subscription. We can do without the Internet. After all, our parents and grandparents did." Ahmed Osama, a manager in TE Data, Egypt's top Internet provider, is concerned over the losses the move entailed. "We are now trying to assess our losses and the locations that have been vandalised," Osama said. Looters "have burned our equipment in the telephone exchange offices and vandalised the equipment that our customers have. Now we are discussing ways to compensate users for the period in which the disruption took place." According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) the five-day interruption in Internet services cost Egypt $90 million, without taking the long- term damage to the country's economy and business reputation into account. The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology admits that recent events have dissuaded major countries from investment and caused considerable losses to the once booming business of call centres. Communications Minister Tareq Kamel visited several telephone exchanges and post offices and said that he would meet the managers of call centres to assess the damage. Egypt, he said, will have trouble attracting foreign investment to this sector. According to the minister, much would depend on the measures being taken to restore confidence in the country's economy. Five telephone exchanges have been burned down or had their land cables stolen, including the telephone exchanges of Omrania and Maadi, said the minister. Telephone companies, for their part, promised to compensate their customers for the interruption in services. Egypt has 23 million users of broadband Internet services. Nearly nine million Egyptians use the Internet on their mobile phones, says the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.
