Egypt Announces Total Shutdown of Cell Phone Service

Reports Say Mubarak Govt Trying to Jam Ham Radio Signals

The Mubarak regime’s desperation for total information control across Egypt is growing, and what started as censorship of certain social media websites and text messaging, and which eventually grew to banning news networks and downing the entire Internet is still growing tonight, with the government announcing that all cell phone networks across Egypt will now be shut down.

According to the Information Ministry, the cell phone networks will be brought down in the hours leading up to the “million man marches” in Cairo and Alexandria, an apparent effort to prevent protesters from communicating with one another. Apparently even the phone-tree is a threat to Mubarak’s rule.

But as the government looks to censor its revolution, the Egyptian public are finding more and more ways to communicate, with leaflets and posters replacing websites, and fax machines and ham radios replacing social media.

Incredibly, however, it seems that the Mubarak government is even looking at ways to move against these forms of communication. Unconfirmed reports suggest that Egypt is actually attempting to jam radio signals coming out of the nation in an effort to prevent the ham radio operators from getting messages to listeners in Europe and beyond.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.