Egypt 'hijacked Vodafone network'

Thu Feb 3 19:48:58 UTC 2011

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

> On Thu, Feb 3, 2011 at 6:59 PM, Scott Brim <scott.brim at 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

> Andrew
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 