The cable, which runs under water along the coast from Tobruk in the east to Ras Ajdir in the west, was cut – either physically or electronically – somewhere between the cities of Misurata and Khomas, the engineers said Gaddafi’s government in Tripoli not only ordered the General Post and Telecommunications Company to switch off access from the main offices in the capital, it also severed Libya’s main “backbone” fibre optic cable, which connected eastern phone and internet networks to the main servers in the west.įaisal Safi, who runs telecommunications in Benghazi, said internet service will return in days The survival of a mobile phone network in eastern Libya, where the communications crackdown has driven the price of Libyana SIM cards to around $111 on the black market, is almost an accident.Īl-Madar, the country’s other mobile provider, has been shut down in the east since the revolt began. “Communication is needed to make people comfortable,” Mahdawi said.
Now, more than two months after the revolt began, and with eastern cities poised to soon regain internet access and international calls, Mahdawi and other local engineers explained how they kept the lines open and why they are upset that a Libyan-American executive living in the United Arab Emirates seems to have gotten all the credit. Through luck and ingenuity, Libyana, one of the country’s two main mobile phone providers, managed to stay online, providing free service throughout the uprising and allowing members of the opposition movement to communicate with one other. Occasionally, an international call connected to a voice in Benghazi. News of the brutal crackdown leaked out through rare satellite Internet connections that allowed residents to make intermittent Skype calls, MSN chats, and sometimes upload mobile phone videos. Hundreds of civilians were killed and injured.Īs the violence raged, Gaddafi’s regime severed eastern Libya’s communication with the outside world, blocking internet access and international phone calls. In the meantime, protesters overthrew the city’s military garrison and ousted forces loyal to longtime Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
The man closed down the office, locked the door and left. “Ahmed, it’s dangerous, I’m going home,” the man said.Īhmed told him to go. Military and internal security forces had begun brutally repressing anti-government protesters in Libya’s second-largest city, and gunfire rang out through the darkened streets. Mobile phone access has been sporadic in parts of rebel-held eastern Libya since the conflict began īenghazi, LIBYA - On February 17, Ahmed el-Mahdawi’s duty engineer called him from the Libyana mobile phone company’s switch room in Benghazi’s Fuihat neighbourhood.
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