How Syria's Rebels Communicate In the Face of Internet Shutdown

jamaicaplain writes "In an extensive look at rebel communications, the New York Times reports that, 'In a demonstration of their growing sophistication and organization, Syrian rebels responded to a nationwide shutdown of the Internet by turning to satellite technology to coordinate within the country and to communicate with outside activists. To prepare, they have spent months smuggling communications equipment like mobile handsets and portable satellite phones into the country.'"

Comments

Re:"They"?

[cheesybagel]

Not when the US Government and others are providing the funding for those communication devices.

How about. . .

[Anonymous Coward]

Project Byzantium

http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/12/08/15/1054246/project-byzantium-zero-to-ad-hoc-mesh-network-in-60-seconds-video

when the security council said "nyet" and "bu shi"

[circletimessquare]

to the syrian rebels months ago, i thought i remember reading that the USA announced it was still going to send communications equipment

yeah, here we go:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2012/11/30/can-u-s-communication-kits-help-syrians-get-around-the-internet-blackout/

the usa has been providing assad-less commlinks to syrians for awhile now

Can the rebels re-enable it?

[Billly Gates]

Gadaffi tried the same thing and the rebels in the eastern half the country reconnected them from the pipes from Egypt and even re-enabled cell phone usage. The northern half of Syria is largely under rebel control with a few bases here and there that are rapidly falling. I am sure in a big city like Allepo there are pipes that flow into Turkey, Iraq, and Lebannon.