DOTGO: The World at Your Fingertips

Vodafone Group PLC of Britain, Egypt’s largest carrier by subscribers, and Egyptian Co. for Mobile Services, or Mobinil, both said they had been required to send short message service, or SMS, to customers in Egypt, even while text-messaging services overall remain down throughout the country.

“Under the emergency powers provisions of the Telecoms Act, the Egyptian authorities can instruct the mobile networks of Mobinil, Etisalat and Vodafone to send messages to the people of Egypt,” Vodafone said in a statement on its website.

Vodafone said the authorities had done so since the start of the protests in the country, and that the messages weren’t scripted by any of the operators.

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