Dubai telecoms engineers supply Libyan rebels with mobile phone network

By: Carol Huang
They arrived by boat, worked under rocket fire and between power cuts, their goal to establish mobile phone connections for the residents of Misurata. Engineers trained in Dubai will help maintain the window to an outside world and neighbours closer to home.
The stealth telecommunications team arrived in Misurata after a stomach-churning 30-hour fishing boat ride from Malta.
Amid rocket fire and despite power cuts, they worked 12 hours a day alongside local engineers, setting up satellite dishes and other equipment. As a result, residents whose

The stealth telecommunications team arrived in Misurata after a stomach-churning 30-hour fishing boat ride from Malta.

 mobile phone networks were disabled by Colonel Muammar Qaddafi’s forces may soon be able to call their neighbours.
Ousama Abushagur, a 31-year-old Libyan-American telecoms executive living in Abu Dhabi, and his global network of donors, vendors and engineers pulled off the same feat three months ago in Benghazi. Phone lines in the de facto rebel capital in eastern Libya also had been cut.
In June, the team brought their rogue network to Misurata, Libya’s third-largest city. For months, the city had suffered some of the worst fighting since Col Qaddafi and rebel forces began battling in February.
The local workers are now running tests and verifying the identities of tens of thousands of SIM card holders in the rebel-held city before turning on the network.
Two engineers came to Dubai this month for training on how to maintain the network.