The month's revolt that toppled the authoritarian leader of Tunisia, Egyptians have staged mass protests since Tuesday in an unprecedented outburst of anger against Hosni Mubarak.
The angry nationwide demonstrations have swelled into the largest uprising in three decades, in which seven people have been killed and more than 100 injured.
Internet access was shut down across the country shortly after 12:00am on Friday (local time). Cellular text messaging services also appeared to be partially disabled, working only sporadically. The shut down involved the withdrawal of more than 3,500 Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) routes by Egyptian ISPs. Only one ISP out of 10, Noor Data Networks, appeared largely unaffected. It connects to the outside world via an undersea cable operated by Telecom Italia.
Activists have relied on the internet, especially social media services like Twitter and Facebook to organize their protests.