oh well
They can't complain.
North Korea has banned the use of mobile phones for 100 days while it formally mourns the death of its late "glorious leader" Kim Jong-Il. Those who disobey the dictat will be treated as war criminals and punished accordingly, it has been claimed. Following Kim Jong-Il's death from a heart attack in December 2011, hordes of …
North Korea gave out the mobile phone licence to an Egyptian mobile phone operator called Orascom on the proviso that they clad the outside of one of the ugliest buildings in the world - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryugyong_Hotel. It still looks like an eyesore but slightly better than what it did.
And now for Orascom's efforts they can enjoy watching their phone network go dark for 4 months. Thanks North Korea! I wouldn't be surprised if the network nationalised next on some flimsy pretense.
Such are the joys of dealing with the most totalitarian paranoid states in the world. Serves Orascom right really.
This doesn't surprise me but I bet it won't apply to plenty of people.
I was there for a couple of weeks this year. In Pyongyang mobiles were very common and in parks we saw locals singing and dancing and filming themselves on their phones. They also allow foreigners who visit regularly to buy special NK mobiles but they have a different number prefix and are unable to call locals' mobiles (but are able to call landlines).
They use a GSM network - I was able to see their network on my iphone - before they confiscated it at the airport for the duration of the trip. They also confiscate any GPS devices (including cameras). One guy got a 3G kindle past them and while we were at the border with China waiting for them to examine/delete photos they didn't like on our cameras, he was happily using the internet - I'm sure a fair few people near the border must use Chinese SIM cards for foreign communications.
By the way - they've just discovered pasties courtesy of Kim Jong il -- http://fb.me/1HO3szL5T