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back to article Egyptian ad gives Vodafone credit for revolution

A three-minute video put out by its advertising agency claims that Vodafone Egypt was the driving force behind the revolution, much to the annoyance of the revolutionaries – and Vodafone. The operator is desperately trying to distance itself from the video, which was uploaded to YouTube by the operator's advertising agency JWT …

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  1. Alastair Dodd 1
    Holmes

    and Vodafone UK

    used Vodafone Egypt as scapegoats with me as to why their billing and website was borked during and after the revolution. Great company, I don't think.

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  2. Robert Carnegie Silver badge

    About that revolution -

    Egypt has a military government now, I thought. Is that really better than before?

    I assume you get a better class of sniper at public demonstrations, a really professional job they do...

    1 3
  3. Kay Burley ate my hamster

    Bad company all over

    Their high data charges do not empower people.

    Their lack of tax payments do not empower people.

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  4. iRadiate

    Wankers

    Complete wankers.

    1 0
    1. Throatwobbler Mangrove
      Reply Icon

      Looking forward to similar work

      If JWT is so proud of having helped overthrow an authoritarian regime in Egypt, then presumably they'll be gearing up to do the same in other markets in which they operate: Syria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Russia...right?

      (Wankers)

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  5. dephormation.org.uk
    Childcatcher

    'Liberation' Vodafone Style?

    So now all Egyptian communications can be covertly relayed to the States, and monitored by Bluecoat in California?

    Or is it just the UK where they do this?

    Ah, the sweet taste of Liberation! (Bastards).

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  6. peter_dtm
    Unhappy

    Well

    Yes of course the govmnt can shut down any radio based system since all radio licences have a clause stating something along the lines of :

    Cease transmitting at the request of the Secretary of State or his duly authorised deputy

    So all the cell towers can be turned off at the whim of a politician or civil servant

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    1. Matthew 3
      Reply Icon

      RE: Well

      Just wondering... If you use one of Vodafone's femtocells, would they remember to turn off the back-end of those too?

      It'd be easy to overlook those and any 'cell tower' that I can control at home won't be turned off at a politician's whim, that's for sure.

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      1. Bill Ray (Written by Reg staff)
        Reply Icon

        Re: RE: Well

        Femtocells are still routed through the same back-end infrastructure, so in this context would be switched off at the same time as the macro network.

        Shame really, and we'll be taking a look at how one might step outside governmental control (as Free Libyania did) in the next few weeks.

        Bill.

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  7. M Gale

    No longer available due to a copyright claim by Vodaphone Egypt

    Hmph.

    Oh well. Streisand icon request pls.

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  8. Big-nosed Pengie
    FAIL

    No longer available...

    "Due to a copyright claim by Vodaphone Egypt".

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  9. Radiohead

    Shut Down the network

    Of course theUK Government has the power to do this using Access Class blocking! Access Class is built into the design of the networks and SIM cards in terminals to permit locking so that only a certain class of SIM's can use the network.

    Joe Public has SIM's with access class 0-9. "Special ones" (and network engineers) have SIM's with access class 10-15. This is typically invoked in emergency situations - after bombs etc. All ordinary users cannot make or receive calls, but those with the special SIMs carry on using it as normal. It could (but I don't think ever is used) be used to reduce congestion - eg: locking only a proportion of SIM's (say 0-4) off the network, but mainatining it for those fortunate enough to have SIM's with an access that has not been locked (ie 5-9).

    Read all about it in ETSI document, section 4 here:

    http://www.etsi.org/deliver/etsi_i_ets/300900_300999/300921/01_40_59/ets_300921e01o.pdf

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