I was just reading some updates on Egypt’s news here and there online...and I came across something that honestly cracked me up. You know, the kind of laughter that precedes tears?

Moving on. A few weeks ago I get a telephone call from a friend telling me that the biggest mobile operator in Egypt, Mobinil, is now the sole internet service provider for outdoor connections. After having been able to ‘go online’ basically anywhere with wireless internet, and for free, now you must sign up, give your mobile number, receive a password on it, and then use the internet. According to the waiter she asked, all information is being collected and ‘donated’ by Mobinil to the Egyptian government, to “help produce statistics on internet usage in Egypt”...

I of course told her it was impossible, and that the CEO of Mobinil, Naguib Sawiris, one of the brightest business minds in Egypt and most decent, would never be part of that. I kept asking if she was sure and she replied with confirmation, that this is apparently now the case in most outdoor cafe’s like Starbucks etc.

We then casually agreed that perhaps we should do something about it and turn it into a public ordeal, by alerting people that this is happening to them. My mind didn’t take me further than that point, I don’t know why, but it escaped me then, and only occurred to me now.

The relationship that is, between this incident, and two months before that, when I attempted to reactivate an older phone line of mine, and was met with a ‘Call Barred’ message. I called the operator and he informed me that I must give all my personal details first, before I can activate any mobile line. Data requested was ID #, Address, Job, DOB etc. I asked him since when was this the rule? He let me know that it was now a law, an actual solid law, newly passed by the ministry of telecommunications...I silently hung up.

Today, I came across an article briefly explaining how Al Ahram headquarters, one of the three biggest local and supposedly public newspapers in Egypt, has banned internet access to Muslim Brotherhood(MB) sites and Blogs that belong to activists...the author went on to relate that to his internet mishap the last time he visited a random cafe, and how a state official came to the doors of the cafe, shortly after he accessed one of the MB websites...

Memory Refreshed of course with the very recent ban of commercial GPS use in Egypt, I had this urge to connect all the dots, although they’re pretty obvious enough. I guess this is just the beginning...