
Egypt Shutting Down Noor, Its Last ISP - atularora
http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/31/reports-egypt-shutting-down-noor-its-last-isp/
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ck2
What about satellite internet?

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_Internet_access#Mecha...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_Internet_access#Mechanics_and_limitations_of_satellite_communication)

Relatively expensive but nearly impossible to stop.

We have it out here in the more rural parts of the USA.

They used to use dial-up for the return feed, but now it can do 2-way via the
sat. A bit laggy though.

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kragen
There was a report earlier that a satellite phone was being jammed, but I
never saw confirmation. Technically, though, it should be pretty easy to do,
at least inside big cities. Your jammer just needs to be louder than the
satellite by as much as the antenna gain. Given that the satellite is 42000km
away, while the jammer can easily be 10km away, the jammer signal has a 70dB
"gain" just from being closer. The antenna gain is rarely more than 30dB, and
I suspect that any coding gain can be compensated for pretty easily.

Still, more avenues for communication means more hoops for would-be censors to
jump through.

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uvdiv
> _Your jammer just needs to be louder than the satellite by as much as the
> antenna gain. Given that the satellite is 42000km away, while the jammer can
> easily be 10km away, the jammer signal has a 70dB "gain" just from being
> closer._

You've underestimated the signal strength from the satellite; it would be very
wasteful for a GEO satellite to transmit in all directions, which would send
99.5%+ of the signal into space. So add at least 20-30 dB for the
directionality of the satellite's antenna.

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kragen
You're right; you have to be louder than the satellite's EIRP, not the
satellite's actual radiated power. In theory there's no ceiling on how
directional the satellite's antenna could be, is there? But I'm guessing your
20–30dB guess is right.

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mtrn
Pure act of desperation.

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akkartik
So no more egyptian stock market?

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Vivtek
That turned out to be hot air - the stock market's closed for the duration
anyway.

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tomjen3
So now even the geeks are out in the streets?

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maeon3
What if there was a device that could prevent the people in egypt from
communicating verbally as well as with body language. I shudder to think what
kind of devistation Mubarak could have done if the Internet had more control
over people.

What if Mubarrak had the ability to power-down humans on an individual basis?
As it stands, this guy is ranking right up there with Dr Evil. I wonder if he
would have gone so far as to detain every protester if he could have pressed a
button online to do so.

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gojomo
_What if there was a device that could prevent the people in egypt from
communicating verbally as well as with body language._

That device is called a machine gun.

