Egypt: Will Skype be Blocked!?
Written byTarek Amr
There are rumours that the Egyptian government is going to block Skype. Bloggers react to the unconfirmed news in this post.
Israa El Sakka wrote about the rumour here.
She said:
In the past few days users has reported problems in logging in to Skype through their Vodafone 3G stick modems.
Vodafone’s customer service indicated that Telecom Egypt is going to block Skype in Egypt, and that it’s out of their hands. After repeated calls from various people to Vodafone’s customer service, they were told “Skype is being blocked since 13th March based on an order from Telecom Egypt.”
It won’t be surprising to find out that Egypt will block Skype, because you don’t expect that much from a categorized Internet enemy state.
Vodafone’s customer service indicated that Telecom Egypt is going to block Skype in Egypt, and that it’s out of their hands. After repeated calls from various people to Vodafone’s customer service, they were told “Skype is being blocked since 13th March based on an order from Telecom Egypt.”
It won’t be surprising to find out that Egypt will block Skype, because you don’t expect that much from a categorized Internet enemy state.
Zeinobia on the other hand isn't sure if the rumours are true or not.
She noted:
I do not know if this news is true or not , I have heard today's morning and I can't check its accuracy. Already Skype works fine with TE Data which by its turn is a subsidiary of Telecom Egypt. Still I will not be surprised to find out that Egypt will block Skype because Telecom Egypt and Mobile phone operators are mad that people are using Skype for free in international calls !! It is more of economic reason I would say than political one actually.
And finally Gr33n Data believes that the government has nothing to do with this, but it's just Vodafone's policy.
He wrote:
As you can see, the source of the news are Vodafone users who are not able to use Skype when they are connected to the internet via their 3G USB Modems. And since many of the ADSL home users are reporting that Skype is working fine at their places. Then I have strong feeling that the Egyptian government has nothing to do with this. I believe it is just Vodafone's DPI that is blocking Skype in order not to harm their revenues.
Written byTarek Amr
7 comments
OH EM GEEEEE
NO WAY
I LOVE SKYPE
NOOOOO
IM SAD :((((((((((((
NOOOOO
It’s official now, the NTRA – the government – is the one responsible for this and not the mobile operators. However I have strong feelings that the operators are the one who pushed the NTRA to take such decision in the first place as Skype harms their – as well as Telecom Egypt’s – revenues.
The main reason myself and my work collegues subscribed for a 3g modem was to get online and be able to call home while working in Egypt. I cannot see what increase in revenue vodafone will gain if I cannot connect to skype i will be closing my account as i can access emails etc from the office.