Easy to shut down telephone and data traffic

To shut down the telecommunications and data communications to and from a country is no problem.You just have to shut off power to the stations that send signals further said David Lindahl, technicians at Defence Research Agency, FOI, Linköping.

- We have small local stations in the villages, put them together into larger transport in cities, and then have a number of key lines that go to the major hubs and then a very small number, one, two or three lines out of the country. It can be either a satellite or a leash so it can be underwater cable or similar. On those points, you can simply tell the technicians to turn off the equipment so that communications do not go out, "said David Lindahl, the Defence Research Agency, FOI, Linköping.

Just cut the power simply?

- I princip ja.

The regime in Libya has gone further than its neighbors to try to prevent people to communicate with the outside world.

To isolate the country is usually difficult. International media have, in contrast to most Libyans, access to satellite phone.

Anyone who has it can call and send as usual. But in Libya turned instead the media out there.

- A satellite telephone, as long as it has power, can communicate with the satellites you are using. And if no country owns the satellites, if there is an international satellite companies that have them, for example, then you can continue to call, "said David Lindahl, the Defence Research Agency, FOI, Linköping.