Since Thursday night, almost full (about 90%) of the Web is hamstrung by the Egyptian authorities. But Noor, an Internet service provider (ISP), appears to have passed between the cracks. Even if the connection is erratic hosted sites, the vast majority of websites hosted by the Egyptian ISPs are always accessible.
This preferential treatment has prompted many reactions on Twitter, where users Egyptian argue that maintaining the sites hosted by Noor is a partnership between the company to the authorities in Cairo.Although it is not a public company, Noor is one of the figureheads of technological development desired by the Mubarak government and has signed many trade agreements with major economic entities.
In August 2004, in an interview published by the newspaper "Al-Mougaz" and taken over by the "newsletter" of the ISP, its founder, Basel Dalloul, welcomed the success of his group, four years after its launch: "The Egyptian government asked me five years ago to seek investment opportunities in the framework of President Mubarak of Egypt to the 'hub' of information technology."
A cog in the Egyptian economy
Oil companies Egyptian General Petroleum Company (EGPC) and ExxonMobil, among others, use the services of Noor, like the Egyptian Exchange. Although it is not the market leader among users "lambda" Noor is through these partnerships, a significant cog in the economy.
This strategic deployment, begun by the group since the early 2000s, is the brainchild of Basel Dalloul. The latter, who just resell Magnet Interactive Group after having been in ten years, a respected technology sector, decided to answer the call of the Egyptian government.His first challenge: to democratize the use of Internet in a country where the Web is still confidential and where it is estimated the total number of Internet users within 500 000.
Developed through a partnership with Telecom Egypt, Noor, founded in 2000, moved quickly to a vast majority of users access the Web Basic (dial-up), via telephone lines from the incumbent operator in Egypt.
A service that will eventually give up, because of the large number of licenses granted by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology to ISPs.
Supplier of Coca-Cola, Toyota and Nestle
Beginning in 2004, while operators like Orascom, getting down to expand their services to individuals, Noor establishes partnerships with many market players in the country. It now provides internal access to the Internet to many groups based in Egypt, including Coca-Cola, Toyota, Renault, Mitsubishi, FedEx, Nestle, Bristol Myers or Lafarge.
Today, the park Egyptian Internet has grown considerably and is flirting with the 17 million users, according to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).And since Thursday evening, the four main providers of Internet access, Link Egypt, Telecom Egypt, Vodafone / Raya, and Etisalat Misr had their broadband networks suspended. Only a few lines "dial-up seem to escape the blackout. ADSL proposed by Noor, meanwhile, is still "online" yet.
