Egypt's Only Internet Provider Still In Service: Why Is Noor Online?

Amidst the Internet blackout in Egypt that experts have deemed the "worst in Internet history," one service provider, the Noor Group, has been up and running nearly uninterrupted since the protests in Egypt began.

Why has the Noor Group, a smaller network provider that claims around 8% market share, continued to connect users to the Web while other Internet service providers, such as Etisalat Misr, Link Egypt, Telecom Egypt, and Raya have shut off connections? And how much longer can citizens count on it to stay online?

Finding the answer means following the money. Noor's ongoing service may be linked to the high-profile businesses and key Egyptian economic institutions that it services. Cutting web access to Noor's customers could cripple the country's financial services industry and impose major economic losses.

As Le Monde and NewsGrange have noted, Noor's clients include sizable multi-national corporations, such as FedEx, Pfizer, Novartis, Coca-Cola, Exxon, Mitsubishi, and Bristol-Myers Squibb, as well as Egypt Air. Perhaps most notably, Noor's network also hosts a cluster of key financial properties, such as the Egyptian stock exchange, Commercial International Bank of Egypt, the National Bank of Egypt, and, according to Renesys CTO Jim Cowie, the Egyptian credit bureau and the clearing house for trades that occur on the country's stock exchange.

"One scenario is that the government gave [Noor] special dispensation and allowed them to remain online to preserve some parts of the financial infrastructure," Cowie told The Huffington Post, noting that the company might also have elected to stay online, despite being ordered to shut down.

"At this point, it's beyond rationality," Cowie said. "It's hard for me to understand what thought process led them to decide to take the whole country offline in the first place. It's hard to use reason to explain why they left some things online."

Renesys, which focuses on providing "Internet intelligence," observed in a blog post that as of Friday, the Noor Group had "83 out of 83 live routes to its Egyptian customers, with inbound transit from Telecom Italia as usual."

Yet the ISP reportedly suffered brief downtime early Monday (EET) and there have been rumors, so far unconfirmed, circulating on Twitter that the Noor Group may be shutting down. @3arabawy, a self-described "socialist journalist" in Cairo, tweeted, "It appears that Noor DSL is blocking DNS now."

We have contacted the Noor Group for comment.

Unable to access the Internet, people in Egypt have turned to low-tech means of communication, including ham radio, dial-up, and fax machines. See how users can get online in Egypt here. Click here for the latest news from Egypt.

Comments

[maslin]

02:18 PM on 01/31/2011

If you're only dealing with 8 % volume, then that's easier to control the traffic.

If you're blocking access to financial markets for most Egyptians, then you're privileging non-Egyptians or a small subset of the population with access to markets in their transactions.

For totalitarians, kleptocrats, and foreigners, this is actually somewhat elegant.

[redsam]

01:52 PM on 01/31/2011

Instead of moping about Egypt's government cut this internet here and that internet there..why can't US use of one of its satellites to beam free internet until the damn crisis blows over....people will love it...maybe you can even catch some bad guys who may be trying to take over there in the process too..

[patrickmcdougal]

02:03 PM on 01/31/2011

Because that would be an act of war.

[joeamerican3]

03:46 PM on 01/31/2011

I'm curious to know how providing free internet service could be deemed an act of war???

[Daniel175]

04:00 PM on 01/31/2011

Uhm, maybe because the internet doesn't quite work that way? You can't just "beam" it in as easy as flipping a switch.

[redsam]

04:37 PM on 01/31/2011

I confess I don't know much about that technology...I was only venturing that opinion because I can just take my router password out and the whole neighborhood can use my connection...combine that with the fact that there are satellite internet providers all over the place..

[RudyHaugeneder]

01:51 PM on 01/31/2011

It is clear that governments have the tools and power to shut down the Internet and social media. Not surprising really, since the Internet was invented by the military -- which always has a fail safe shut down button it can punch. And governments like Egypt and China have shown that it doesn't take much to lower a finger on that button.
Meanwhile, where is the Western media? Egypt has shut down Al Jazeera operations and arrested several of its journalists but the Western journalists don't complain or protest.
If journalists won't stand against a direct attack on the free press, who will? Most reporters, it appears, are cowards.

[kizzie]

08:11 PM on 02/01/2011

And it could, and probably will happen to us one of these days when enough people get fed up and get informed.

[Ngonyama]

01:41 PM on 01/31/2011

Ah, money! That marvelous magical stuff that seems to always be around when odd events beg for explanations...

[geeshep]

01:40 PM on 01/31/2011

trample the poor but Coke must get through

[drumz]

01:38 PM on 01/31/2011

So how about all the tech support?

[clearthinker16]

01:36 PM on 01/31/2011

cutting off the businesses and banks that run the country would be very bad for Egypt

[CT Independent]

12:52 PM on 01/31/2011

Apparently Egypt is no different than the US. Banks control everythig :)

[pfz]

01:08 PM on 01/31/2011

Yes it does. Maybe if Coca Cola wanted Mubarak out he'd leave.

[Ngonyama]

01:42 PM on 01/31/2011

Had you expected anything else?

[SnarkicusMax]

12:51 PM on 01/31/2011

One almost would like to see hackers take down the privileged internet as well. If none for us, then none for you either.

[patrickmcdougal]

02:05 PM on 01/31/2011

Protestors are able to use this provider.don't throw the baby out with the bath water

[repatriate]

07:15 PM on 01/31/2011

Apparently protesters are not - Noor has turned off its DSL customers' access to DNS, according to the article.

Unless you know the numerical address of every site you want to use, if your ISP has killed DNS properly (blocked the service port) you can't use the connection for much.

A few hotels' internet is still working, enough for a few people to occasionally get smidgens of news out.

I agree with Snark - turn Anonymous loose on Noor, too.

[Rodger leMonde]

12:39 PM on 01/31/2011

The ruling class has to keep in touch. One ISP can be controlled easier than many.

[kizzie]

08:15 PM on 02/01/2011

And watched, and monitored to who is using it and who they are---good tracking system with just one server.

[Rick Eriksen]

12:33 PM on 01/31/2011

Well there you go...it is the banks internet system...

[DishTVBlog]

12:32 PM on 01/31/2011

It's all about the money! Interesting article.

[logicanada]

11:44 AM on 01/31/2011

Finding the answer means following the money. Noor's ongoing service may be linked to the high-profile businesses and key Egyptian economic institutions that it services. Shutting off access to the Internet to Noor's customers could cripple the country's financial services industry and impose major losses.

. . . which is definitive proof of who runs things . . . big money.