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Engineers Hijack Libyan Phone Network For Rebels
An anonymous reader writes "A team led by a Libyan-American telecom executive has helped rebels hijack Col. Moammar Gadhafi's cellphone network and re-establish their own communications. The new network, first plotted on an airplane napkin and assembled with the help of oil-rich Arab nations, is giving more than two million Libyans their first connections to each other and the outside world after Col. Gadhafi cut off their telephone and Internet service about a month ago."
I'm fairly sure you need physical access to the infrastructure at some point in order to do this - if only to change the router's admin credential so you can't be "hacked back". In a country with an on-going revolution this is much easier to do that in a stable country where the security guards of the data center are certainly not going to let you in.
Obviously neither of the 2 parents read the article, where it explains in detail all the high-tech hardware they needed to import in order to do this, with the help of sympathetic nations like Qatar because telecom companies won't sell this stuff to individuals. It was NOT easy, and yes, obviously physically access was needed.