User:Scannah/Sandbox

Control of Bandwidth Allocation Abroad
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that is responsible for allocating portions of the wireless spectrum for, broadband, public safety, and the media.

Egypt
Unlike the government of the U.S, the government of Egypt does not have their own communications infrastructure, but private companies operate their own communication infrastructure. At first, the Egyptian government blocked the internet data usage for smart phones and black-berrys, and social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube as well. They also eventually cut off mobile phone service. This was possible even though the Egyptian government does not control communications because there are no agencies mandated to control communications. The fact is, the cooperation of the Internet service providers with the Egyptian government was necessary because they would otherwise have difficulties ethically running their business. If the government calls up the company service provider and makes a request within legal rights, then they give into the government’s demands even if they are illegal according to the law. They have to follow the government’s requests, in order to conduct business in that country.

China
The Internet Service Provider (ISP)of China blocked certain websites without any explanations or warnings. The first blockage of sites occurred from June 2, 2004 to June 21, 2004; they blocked access to Chinese Wikipedia Web Sites in Bejing. The second occurrence of internet blocks in China happened from September 23, 2004 to September 27, 2004. Some people could not access wikipedia for a few days, and even if they gained access they could not access all pages. The third incidence of wiki-block in China started on October 19, 2005. The ISP lifted the blockage partially on October 10, 2006, but they blocked it again November 17, 2006. They blocked Wikipedia in all languages again on August 31, 2007, but lifted this blockage April 2, 2008. Most recently, Wikipedia was blocked altogether in China starting April 6, 2008. It is possible to access the website by logging in through https, but sensitive issues such as the conflict with Tibet are still blocked.

These two cases in two separate countries show how important the role of the communications infrastructure and allocating bandwidth is, and how easy it is to switch off the access, especially in countries that have the power to control communications.