Dust off your dialup modem to contact Egypt

With the internet down and SMS services unavailable, most of Egypt is closed off from the rest of the world. This makes distributing eyewitness reports very difficult. Radio hams, hackers and bloggers from all across the globe are desperately trying to set up make connections and to distribute information.

Until Saturday night it wasn’t even possible for Egyptians to use their mobile phones. In order to break the large-scale protests the Egyptian authorities are using all possible means to cut off communication channels. But an old-school analogue communication platform turns out to be very helpful. So messages are coming out off Egypt through regular landline phones.

“Thanks to many dedicated bloggers outside of Egypt”, says Manal Hassan, an Egyptian blogger operating from South Africa.