[Outages-discussion] [outages] Syria off the net

[Bill Woodcock]

On Nov 29, 2012, at 10:49 AM, "Patrick W. Gilmore" <patrick at ianai.net> wrote:
> However, many authoritarian governments disallow communications infrastructure to cross their border (e.g. "point-to-point T1 outside the country") except through a very small handful of very closely regulated (read "controlled") agents.  Sometimes only one.

Correct.  That's an "international gateway license," of which there's generally only one, and it's generally state-owned, since that provides the single point for interception.  In this case it's Syrian Telecommunications Establishment, AS29256 and AS29386.  There are also a number of ASNs normally behind it: the Syrian Computer Society, the Syrian Higher Education Network, Syriatel (the mobile operator) and MTN (the pan-African mobile carrier with the second mobile license).

                                -Bill