nanog mailing list archives

Re: Egypt 'hijacked Vodafone network'


From: Mike Lyon <mike.lyon () gmail com>
Date: Thu, 3 Feb 2011 13:41:15 -0800

That is horrible....

Next thing you know they'll be sending SMS messages to the people saying
"TEXT 666 to donate 58 Egyption Pounds to support Mubarak"

On Thu, Feb 3, 2011 at 1:32 PM, andrew.wallace <
andrew.wallace () rocketmail com> wrote:

On Thu, Feb 3, 2011 at 7:48 PM, Marshall Eubanks <tme () americafree tv>
wrote:

On Feb 3, 2011, at 2:20 PM, andrew.wallace wrote:

On Thu, Feb 3, 2011 at 6:59 PM, Scott Brim <scott.brim () gmail com>
wrote:
On 02/03/2011 10:14 EST, Marshall Eubanks wrote:

On Feb 3, 2011, at 9:24 AM, andrew.wallace wrote:

Mobile phone firm Vodafone accuses the Egyptian authorities of
using its network to send pro-government text messages.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12357694

Here is their PR

http://www.vodafone.com/content/index/press.html

Note that this is entirely legal, under "the emergency powers
provisions of the Telecoms Act"

Which is legal, Vodafone's protest or the government's telling them to
send messages?  afaik the agreement was that the operator would have
preloaded canned messages, agreed on in advance with the government,
and
now the government is telling them to send out arbitrary messages they
compose on the spot.



I wonder if these messages were blockable by the end-user or if they
were being sent as a service announcement from Vodafone.

Certainly, if the government were sending the messages under the company
name then something sounds wrong about that.

What I would like is to hear from someone who received the messages and
what their experiences were.


They were described to me as being "from Vodafone." I assumed that this
meant that they were service messages.

Marshall

A text message received Sunday by an Associated Press reporter in Egypt
appealed to
the country's "honest and loyal men to confront the traitors and
criminals and protect our people and honor."

Another urged Egyptians to
attend a pro-Mubarak rally in Cairo on Wednesday. The first was marked as
coming from "Vodafone." The other was signed: "Egypt Lovers."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110203/ap_on_hi_te/eu_egypt_cell_phones

Andrew








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