Four dead, 22 injured in fire at Cairo's Ramses telecommunications building
Egypt's Minister of Communications, Amr Talaat, stated that all telecommunication services are gradually returning and assured that within 24 hours, all services, including the internet, will be fully restored across the nation.
Talaat explained that all services were rerouted to multiple alternative exchanges, operating as a backup network.
He denied claims that Egypt relies solely on the Ramses switchboard of the Telecom Egypt company as its main telecommunications hub.
During his inspection of the building, Egypt's Minister of Communications, stated that Cairo's Ramses telecommunications building will remain out of service for days, noting that services will be gradually returning, according to Al-Arabiya.
The Egyptian minister assessed the extent of the damage caused by the fire and reviewed the technical measures implemented to ensure that telecommunications services will continue to be provided.
Most vital services, such as emergency police, fire departments, ambulance services, the bread distribution system, airports, ports, and other essential utilities, are operating normally in most governorates, the minister assured.
He acknowledged, however, that some limited disruptions have appeared in a few governorates, and efforts are underway to restore these services swiftly.
Investigations revealed that the fire erupted inside one of the halls on the floor designated for hosting telecommunication operators, which comprises separate halls for each operator.
The intense fire spread to other floors, while all equipment halls belonging to Telecom Egypt were secured with safety measures and automatic fire suppression systems.
According to the available information, the severity and intensity of the fire prevented firefighting teams from quickly extinguishing it.
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Mada
2 hours ago
- Mada
Ramses fire exposes heavy reliance of private operators on state-owned infrastructure
A fire at Egypt's most critical telecommunications facility this week has caused nationwide network service disruptions. While the government has downplayed the country's dependence on the Ramses Exchange central data center, the scale of the disruption, affecting all public and private network operators nationwide, has drawn censure from critics who point to the degree of national dependence on infrastructure concentrated in a single building complex in cental Cairo. The incident killed four people and left 32 injured while triggering an immediate and widespread internet blackout. The fire, which sent thick smoke billowing over central Cairo for hours, knocked the building out of operation. The shutdown immediately disrupted phone and internet services, emergency hotlines like those for ambulances and the police, ATMs and digital payment systems as well as some air travel operations. Communications Minister Amr Talaat, who visited the site, denied on Tuesday that Egypt relies solely on the Ramses Exchange building for telecommunication services. But the minister also said that affected services had to be redistributed across other data centers in the country, which are now acting as a backup network while repairs on Ramses are underway. No other data center in Egypt matches Ramses' in scale or in the range of functions it performs within the national telecommunications network that extends to all governorates. The exchange building serves as a data center, a storage facility leased by operators, a primary interconnection point between networks and a hub for receiving international calls. While other data centers across Egypt play significant roles within the national grid, with some coming close in terms of function, none rival Ramses. Despite Talaat's assurances, however, that the decline in service connectivity would end in hours, connectivity in Egypt dropped sharply in the aftermath of the fire, with some connectivity still unstable 48 hours later. Data from Netblocks, an independent internet monitoring platform, showed that national connectivity fell to 62 percent of ordinary levels immediately after the fire, before dropping further to just 44 percent the next day. The disruption varied across service providers. Orange was the hardest hit, with connectivity collapsing to just 2 percent of its usual levels, followed by Etisalat operating at 10 percent. Vodafone was less affected at 69 percent, while TE Data, owned by Telecom Egypt, maintained between 82 percent and 91 percent of normal connectivity. The extent of damage to each telecom company during the fire was directly linked to their level of reliance on the data center, according to Mohamed al-Maghraby, an electrical engineer specializing in network security at a private sector company who spoke to Mada Masr. Both Etisalat and Orange depend on the Ramses board for roughly 80 percent of their operations, making them the most severely affected, he said. The physical infrastructure that underpins telecom and internet services, including cable lines, exchanges, data centers and switches, is fully owned by Telecom Egypt — the network provider majority -owned by the government. The infrastructure was built and substantially upgraded by the state, especially over the past decade. Billions of Egyptian pounds were allocated to the Communications Ministry to develop the system, including a major shift from copper cables to fiber optic networks for data transmission. Government investment in the sector has reached LE152 billion over the past ten years. The government bears the full cost of infrastructure investments, while private companies, like Orange, Etisalat and others, lease transmission capacity from it, a former senior official at Telecom Egypt told Mada Masr. Although private operators are allowed to build and expand their own infrastructure according to their needs under the terms of their licenses, they opt to lease from Telecom Egypt because it's far cheaper than building their own, especially under oversight that is marred with flaws, according to the senior official. Private telecom operators entered the market before it was formally regulated, they continued. While private players began operating in the 1990s, a formal legal framework wasn't introduced until 2003, with the passage of the telecommunications regulation law, which established the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA) to oversee and regulate the sector. The NTRA does not mandate that service providers build their own infrastructure, nor does it object to companies leasing the infrastructure from another provider. However, it does lay out a set of guidelines meant to ensure the quality and sustainability of services. According to the former senior Telecom Egypt official, companies are expected to lease transmission capacity that exceeds their operational needs — or greater than the number of customers they serve. Beyond this surplus, companies are also expected to maintain an emergency reserve — unused under normal conditions but available during crises of varying degrees. This reserve is meant to act as an immediate backup that ensures continued data transmission and service stability in the event of damage to primary infrastructure. The closer this reserve capacity is to the company's actual regular operating volume, the less damage the company is likely to suffer during a disruption, and the better its service continuity. Maghraby likewise said that there are two levels of contingency planning in the event of network emergencies — the first a standard backup plan, designed to fully absorb common and recurring incidents without noticeably affecting network connectivity. The second, he said, is a disaster recovery plan for rare, large-scale and unpredictable events — the worst-case scenario. In Egypt's case, this would require a full replica of the Ramses data center, mirroring its entire capacity and functionality to take over completely if the original were to fail. However, private providers tend to 'skimp' on leasing the extra or emergency capacity required as backup by the NTRA, the former senior official at Telecom Egypt said. This skimping, or that the NTRA overlooks this requirement, is a regulatory oversight. The source argues that flaws in NTRA oversight lie in a central conflict of interest: while the authority is tasked with regulating the sector on behalf of the state, the government is also an active market player through its majority stake in Telecom Egypt. This dual role makes regulatory enforcement a sensitive matter. Private companies have repeatedly accused the NTRA of favoring the state-owned company and using its supervisory powers to serve the interests of a competitor in the industry instead.
Egypt Independent
a day ago
- Egypt Independent
Four dead, 22 injured in fire at Cairo's Ramses telecommunications building
The National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA) announced on Tuesday that the Cairo telecommunications building's fire has been brought under control – an incident that tragically resulted in four deaths and 22 injuries. Egypt's Minister of Communications, Amr Talaat, stated that all telecommunication services are gradually returning and assured that within 24 hours, all services, including the internet, will be fully restored across the nation. Talaat explained that all services were rerouted to multiple alternative exchanges, operating as a backup network. He denied claims that Egypt relies solely on the Ramses switchboard of the Telecom Egypt company as its main telecommunications hub. During his inspection of the building, Egypt's Minister of Communications, stated that Cairo's Ramses telecommunications building will remain out of service for days, noting that services will be gradually returning, according to Al-Arabiya. The Egyptian minister assessed the extent of the damage caused by the fire and reviewed the technical measures implemented to ensure that telecommunications services will continue to be provided. Most vital services, such as emergency police, fire departments, ambulance services, the bread distribution system, airports, ports, and other essential utilities, are operating normally in most governorates, the minister assured. He acknowledged, however, that some limited disruptions have appeared in a few governorates, and efforts are underway to restore these services swiftly. Investigations revealed that the fire erupted inside one of the halls on the floor designated for hosting telecommunication operators, which comprises separate halls for each operator. The intense fire spread to other floors, while all equipment halls belonging to Telecom Egypt were secured with safety measures and automatic fire suppression systems. According to the available information, the severity and intensity of the fire prevented firefighting teams from quickly extinguishing it.
Watani
2 days ago
- Watani
St Didymus the Blind re-emerges from the depth of history
'Didymus the Blind (c.313 – 398) warrants recognition and commemoration because, even though he lost his eyesight at an early age, he was able to enlighten the minds generations by his thought and knowledge.' These words belong to Egyptian sculptor Girgis al-Gawly, professor of sculpture at Minya University, who recently sculpted a statue of St Didymus the Blind (313 – 398). Watani talked to Dr Gawly about the statue. 'This statue,' Dr Gawly noted, 'serves as an artistic and humane honour for a unique figure in the history of human and Christian thought. St Didymus was a man who lived during a time when blinds were doomed to darkness and need, yet he was able to overcame his disability and the darkness that engulfed him, to lead generations upon generations to the light of knowledge.' Cultural blend Dr Gawly said that the statue he sculpted of St Didymus features lines of a classical character that lived in Egypt during Greco-Roman times. The sculpture follows the distinctive Alexandrian style that was the outcome of intertwined Pharaonic, Hellenistic, Roman, and Christian Coptic art. The statue, he said, emulates the amazing cultural blend that enveloped Egypt throughout these eras that were rich in knowledge, art, and spirituality. The two-metre-high Didymus statue is made of Aswan clay, a material sourced out of Egyptian soil. Dr Gawly said that the work depicts St Didymus as a man of determination and courage, reflecting his amazing character that transcended visual impairment to revolutionise the way blind people were taught reading and writing through raised relief letters, a method that paralleled the Braille concept but predated it by some 15 centuries. Dr Gawly sculpted Didymus standing tall, his eyes blindfolded and his hands holding a wooden tablet, the means through which he read and wrote. Didymus the Seer The Coptic Orthodox Church commemorates St Didymus the Blind on 13 June as a writer, ascetic, theologian, and polymath. The synaxarium describes him as 'a wonderful model of holy perseverance and discipline who went on to become the Dean of the Catechetical School of Alexandria. 'He was born in Alexandria in 313AD and was named Didymus which is Greek for Thomas. When only four, he contracted a disease that led to loss of his sight. He never went to school because he was blind, but his great love for knowledge led him to overcome that obstacle by learning the alphabet through running his fingers over carved wooden letters. That was 15 centuries before the Braille system was used.' Didymus learned language and grammar, rhetoric, philosophy, logic, theology, arithmetic and music, excelling in them to the point of debating scholars. The fame of his knowledge became well known everywhere. St Jerome called him 'Didymus the Seer'. In 346, Pope Athanasius entrusted to Didymus the management of the Theological School of Alexandria which flourished under him and grew to attract some of the great learned men of the time, including Palladius, Rufinus and Jerome. St Jerome said that Didymus bore the characteristics of an apostolic person; Rufinus called him a prophet; and Sozomin the historian said that the way Didymus defended the teachings of the Council of Nicaea against the Arians was incomparable. Didymus was a pious ascetic who prayed for the Christians persecuted by Julian the Infidel. He saw in a vision that Julian was killed in war and it was fulfilled on the exact day and hour. St Anthony visited him in his cell; they prayed together and talked about the Holy Scriptures. When he saw him sorrowful for the loss of his vision, the father of all monks told him: 'How can you be sorrowful for losing something shared with the least of animals and not rejoice in that God has given you a spiritual vision which He does not grant except to those whom He loves? He gave you eyes with which you see spiritual things and perceive the mysteries of God Himself.' Didymus was greatly comforted by these words. St Didymus wrote many books in theology, dogma, and exegesis on both testaments of the Bible. He departed the world in peace in 398. He had lived 85 years, 52 of them as Dean of the Theological School of Alexandria. He was a contemporary of four Coptic patriarchs: Pope Athanasius the Apostolic, Pope Peter II, Pope Timothy I, and Pope Theophilus. When Pope Shenouda III (Patriarch in 1971 – 2012) inaugurated the Institute for Coptic Church Cantors, many of whom had been traditionally chosen from among the blind but the tradition no longer holds, he named it St Didymus Institute in honour of this great theologian and saint. Comments comments Tags: Didymus the BlindMichael Girgissculptor Girgis Al-Gawly
