Egyptian Internet shutdown could cost nation $90 million, says OECD

Andre Yoskowitz
7 Feb 2011 0:34

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has said this weekend that Egypt's decision to shutdown the Internet could cost the nation $90 million, or about $18 million for each day of the 5 day shutdown.
Overall, telecom and Internet services account for 3-4 percent of GDP in the country.
The organization says the greater implications may be worse, however, since Egypt has been working for years to attract tech firms to the nation:

The shutdown will make it much more difficult in the future to attract foreign companies and assure them that the networks will remain reliable.

One such example, is that of Vodafone, which was forced to hire 100 new workers in New Zealand when its call center and staff of 180 became unreachable in Egypt.
Continues OECD (via PCM):

Therefore, while the direct costs of shutting down telecommunication networks are still significant, the true social and economic costs will be much higher. Egypt will need to regain the confidence of customers around the globe if it still wants to be considered a key ICT hub for business again.