Egypt's Last Functioning ISP Goes Offline - Mobile Phone Networks Going Next

It was only a matter of time. Yesterday, I wrote about Noor, the last Egyptian ISP that was still working, despite the government ordering all other Internet service providers to shut down. Now, Egypt’s last conduit to the Internet has been shut down as well.

Chances are that the Noor group, which has about an 8% market share in Egypt, was allowed to keep operating as it provides services to major national and international corporations, including the Egyptian stock exchange in Cairo, Coca-Cola and Pfizer.

Yesterday, I wondered why Noor couldn’t keep these clients online while shutting down service to rest of its domestic subscribers. There are unconfirmed reports that this is exactly what Noor did. It seems more likely, though, that these services are now offline, as the site of the Egyptian Stock Exchange is now unreachable, too.

Here is a graph of the Noor Groups connectivity, courtesy of Earl Zmijewski from Renesys, which confirms the shutdown:

Mobile Phone Networks Going Down Next

Egypt’s information ministry also just confirmed the shutdown of the Noor network. The ministry also told CNN a little while ago that the government plans to take all mobile phone networks in the country offline ahead of a major protest march planned for Tuesday.