Interest in VPN hits all time high as Egypt blocks VoIP apps like Skype, Facetime, Viber, WhatsApp, and even Messenger

Voice over IP (VoIP) apps such as Facetime, Viber, Skype, WhatsApp, and Messenger have been all but unusable from Egypt for the last few days. The recent wave of VoIP app blocks is pushing more and more Egyptians to use VPN – inevitably, VPN is now a trending search for Egypt region mobile app stores and Google search. Back in 2016, Egypt also banned the encrypted messaging app, Signal – though Signal was able to come up with an ingenious workaround.

Searches for VPN rise to all time high in Egypt as VoIP ban intensifies

Often times, such as in Vietnam, Cameroon or Jammu and Kashmir, shutdowns of the entire internet or just communication apps are used as a way for the government to limit discussion during potentially politically tumultuous times. For days since the recent spat of terrorist attacks, VoIP services have been more or less unavailable in Egypt on all three internet service providers (ISPs). The ISPs in the region include Etislat, Orange, and Vodafone – all three insist that they are not blocking any VoIP apps and that they haven’t received any new orders to do so from Egypt’s National Telecommunications Regulatory Agency (NTRA).

On their end, the NRTA has denied both issuing any new blocking orders and any involvement in the blocks. An Egyptian telecom source told the Egypt Independent:

“Even though I work at a mobile operator company I haven’t been notified about any blockage, nothing has been disclosed to us … but VoIP services are clearly unstable right now.”

Egyptians have an option for stable VoIP though – VPN.

Hello Egypt, there’s something called VPN ✌️ ك* امك يا حكومة

— Ahmed Maher (@AMaheer) April 21, 2017

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