Egypt Block VoIP services

Egypt has disrupted voice over internet protocol (VoIP) services this week for users who use messaging apps like Apple’s FaceTime, Viber, Skype, Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp.
The key reason is ostensibly security concerns, but there’s also a suspicion there are economic incentives for local telcos who have complained to regulators about free calls via such apps.

The partial disruption comes on the back of a three-month nationwide state of emergency after terrorist attacks on Palm Sunday (April 9) killed 47 people in two churches. The regressive emergency law allows authorities sweeping powers including monitoring personal communications without judicial oversight and shuttering media outlets

Late last year, Egypt also blocked the highly encrypted app Signal forcing users to download a virtual private network (VPN) program as with this month’s partial block – messaging still works without a VPN.
A controversial cyber-security law has been on the books for a few months and the NTRA has signaled its tacit support for it. Earlier this month, an Alexandria lawyer was sentenced under a newly legislated counter-terrorism law to ten years in prison and a five-year ban from using the internet for Facebook posts deemed insulting to president Abdel Fattah El Sisi.

The economic argument that has been put forward by the regulator and other Egyptian telecommunications providers before maintains that customers’ calls should be charged and that users are ‘free-riding’ by using internet data.
“Our demands are simple: we want quicker and affordable internet without constant disruptions so we can be like other countries that respect freedom of expression” Abdel Naby said. “The government cannot keep on using terrorism as an excuse to disrupt apps”
The most populous Arab country has one of the slowest internet speeds worldwide ranking in the bottom five countries for broadband and 95th for mobile.
Egypt is the latest African country disrupting internet services in recent months following in the footsteps of Cameroon and Morocco.

Nigeria Ranked third in Africa for Affordable Internet Data

The Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) has ranked Nigeria third in its Africa Affordability Drivers Index, out of 27 countries studied by the group.

The Africa Regional Coordinator of the group, Onica Makwakwa, made the disclosure at the unveiling of the Africa Affordability Report 2017 in Lagos on Tuesday.

The report is an annual publication of A4AI, examining the policy and regulatory framework that had allowed some countries to make internet more affordable, accessible and universal.

It suggested what other countries could do to catch up on internet affordability.

A detailed breakdown of the report showed that Mauritius topped the table with 61.70 per cent, followed by Morocco with 57.75 per cent.

Nigeria came third with 56.58 per cent, with Botswana on the fourth position with 55.37 per cent and Cote d'Ivoire scoring 53.25 per cent.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Rwanda is on the sixth position with 61.48 per cent, while South Africa scores 51.20 per cent and Ghana, 50.01 per cent.

Benin and Kenya post 48.95 per cent and 48.82 per cent, respectively.

According to the report, only five out of the 27 African countries have affordable internet- they are Mauritius, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and Sudan.

"Affordable internet is one Gigabyte (1GB) of mobile pre-paid data for two per cent or less of average monthly income.

"However, 1GB of data costs an average citizen nearly 18 per cent of their monthly income.

"Overall, African countries score less than five out of 10 in all policy areas, indicating the crucial need for improvement."

The report cites the International Telecommunication Union as saying that only 25 per cent of the African population is online.

It said that the continent had 16 per cent of mobile broadband penetration and that there was 23 per cent internet use gender gap in Africa.