Cell phone service restored for some in Egypt

Vodafone Saturday said it has restored cell phone services to its customers in Egypt following a two-day forced shut down of mobile and internet communications amid violent protests in that country.

According to a statement posted over the weekend on Vodafone’s press website, the company said mobile operators in that country were ordered to cut services late Thursday.

“There were no legal or practical options open to Vodafone, or any of the mobile operators in Egypt, but to comply with the demands of the authorities,” the company said. “Authorities in Egypt have the technical capability to close our network, and if they had done so it would have taken much longer to restore services to our customers.”

The company’s CEO made a similar statement during a presentation at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week, The Wall Street Journal reported.