14 DAY TRIAL // Even as violence seems to be escalating in Egypt, some things are returning to normal. The internet has been restored in the country as all major ISPs are coming back online and serving their customers. Most connections should be working now, after several days of no service. It's unclear who took the decision. Mobile services are also coming back online.
"All major Egyptian ISPs appear to have readvertised routes to their domestic customer networks in the global routing table, with the exception of Noor Group," Renesys, a company monitoring available internet routes in Egypt writes.
"Recall that Noor was the exception (until Monday) to the Internet blackout, so they are as much an anomaly in restoration as they were in outage," it explains.
Apparently, web access is still restricted, for example Twitter is still blocked for some. However, things should be returning to normal after the unprecedented move to cut off the entire country.
But the situation in the country is still far from settled. Even as president Mubarak pledges not to run for office in the upcoming elections in fall and to start implementing several reforms, protesters aren't giving up.
Most still want the current leader gone once and for all and will not be satisfied until he leaves. Yet, even as he promises reforms and reconciliation, it seems that Mubarak supporters are popping up and clashing violently with protesters.
However, most of the close to two million protesters that gathered yesterday have gone home, but will be returning on Friday to protest again if things do not change.
Last week, as the situation escalated, the government cut off access to the internet and disrupted phone services to, hopefully, discourage protesters and disrupt organization efforts.
Of course, as we now know, things didn't work out that way and now that communications have been restored, they should be moving in the right direction.