How Egypt shut down the internet

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/egypt/8288163/How-Egypt-shut-down-the-internet.html

Virtually all internet access in Egypt is cut off today as the government battles to contain the street protests that threaten to topple President Hosni Mubarak.

By Christopher Williams, Technology Correspondent

11:29AM GMT 28 Jan 2011

Organisations that track global internet access detected a collapse in traffic in to and out of Egypt at around 10.30GMT on Thursday night.

The shut down involved the withdrawal of more than 3,500 Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) routes by Egyptian ISPs, according to Renesys, a networking firm. Only one ISP out of 10, Noor Data Networks, appeared largely unaffected. It connects to the outside world via an undersea cable operated by Telecom Italia.

According to BGPMon, another networking firm, 88 per cent of Egyptian internet access was successfully shut down, however. snip

The action puts Egypt, temporarily at least, in the company of North Korea, which has never allowed its citizens access to the internet.

[mogster]

1. Here's a graphic

Looks like the national telecom went down first, then the rest followed withing minutes.
Only one ISP is still online, Noor.
http://www.renesys.com/blog/2011/01/egypt-leaves-the-internet.shtml

I wonder about this cable cut from 2 years ago:
http://www.reallyrocketscience.com/node/872

Anyho, here's a map of the subterranean cable net for middle east/Asia:

Or one of them, I don't know.