Why Sudan turned off mobile data
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- Опубликовано: 26 июл 2023
- Caroline Roper, Ella Hubber and Tom Lum from the podcast 'Let's Learn Everything!' face a question about a smart signal stoppage.
LATERAL is a weekly podcast about interesting questions and even more interesting answers, hosted by Tom Scott. For business enquiries, contestant appearances or question submissions, visit www.lateralcast.com
GUESTS:
Caroline Roper: / carolinethebug
Ella Hubber: / ellahubber
Tom Lum: / tomlumperson
Let's Learn Everything podcast: www.letslearneverythingpod.com/
HOST: Tom Scott.
QUESTION PRODUCER: David Bodycombe.
RECORDED AT: The Podcast Studios, Dublin.
EDITED BY: Julie Hassett.
GRAPHICS: Chris Hanel at Support Class. Assistant: Dillon Pentz.
MUSIC: Karl-Ola Kjellholm ('Private Detective'/'Agrumes', courtesy of epidemicsound.com).
FORMAT: Pad 26 Limited/Labyrinth Games Ltd.
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: David Bodycombe and Tom Scott.
© Pad 26 Limited (www.pad26.com) / Labyrinth Games Ltd. 2023. 
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The first thing that popped into my mind was that they were trying to prevent people from organising a protest/rally. This happens a lot here in India for crowd control/"control".
I was thinking the same. I'm not sure how effective it was with the exam when Wi-Fi was still working. Also, nobody touched my other idea - they were upgrading some expired certificates on the backend of the cell tower infrastructure.
Same in belarus in 2020
@ Upgrading an expired certificate? 💀 I don't know if telecom companies take their security this seriously, or even if they do they'd still probably do a slow transition.
That was my first thought, this has been done before in an attempt to disrupt protestors from organising themselves.
Turning off mobile data during COVID time, when everyone is at home with wi-fi, is just a galaxy brain move that I'm too stupid to comprehend.
Apparently quarantine ended in Sept 2020 in Sudan, at least in schools I guess, and I suppose you aren't allowed to take exams at home.
@@epender Proves my point, I guess
not COVID time, and as noted in the answer. Def big brain stuff.
I've heard that some developing nations have widespread mobile service but very little wired service. Basically, it was more cost effective to build cell towers, so they skipped the infrastructure for land lines, dial up, etc. Maybe that's the case in Sudan.
This is Sudan. Hardly anyone would have regular internet access, WiFi, etc. Cell phones are the only internet access for at least 90% of the people.
No, it wasn't Wales, it was Sudan! It was in the question!😜
Korea has something similar with an exam day where almost everything stops to make the country as silent as possible so the students can get to their exam location and concentrate.
late students can ask for a police escort to the exam facility
@@chudezsimilar thing in china. if you forgot your confirmation for exam (or more like a permit) or id a police will escort you to get it back from your place
@@allenzhao2693interesting. Every year nowadays with the national exams in Brazil there are online memes about late students.
I remember they did the same at some point when I lived in Chad (2008-2009). But it wasn't exams. They were making coordinated arrests.
Yeah, my first guess was to stop journalist and social media users posting evidence of some form of political crackdown by the government
Tom should try to get into a sonar officer training facility and do some "ear training". it's amazing what you can hear under water, natural and technical.
this should easily make 20 entertaining minutes of ooh-aah-I-didn't-expect-Thats.
if not Tom, send Gary.
Gary can make the whale/goose/train noises while Tom listens lol
Matt would love that, but he already knows this stuff. It would be more entertaining to send someone who's new to it.
@@davidshi451
"Conn, sonar, new contact!"
"What is it?"
"Sounds like a...goose on a train, skipper."
@@davidshi451is it weird that I can just as well “remember” this video vividly just by your suggestions?
It would be so typical Technical Difficulties.
At 2:10 the Caroline's subtitles say 'Why find things were still working?' while it probably should be "'Wi-Fi" things were still working?'.
Ps.: I really appreciate the subtitles.
In countries where number portability exist, there's this one element of the network that tells what's the actual operator to route the call to. In the rare cases this element fails, not a single phone call can reach... happened in France 10 years age and that def could be the subject of a great Tom Scott video! (sorry, pleonasm... of a Tom Scott video. They are always great.)
Everyone was still in their 1st World mind set thinking about home internet and WiFi. Most places in Africa never got land line telephone service. (And they never will get it, installing a cell phone tower is way cheaper than wiring every home/dwelling). For most people, a cell phone is the first phone they ever owned. I wouldn't know the exact numbers, but I can guarantee that a smart phone is also the first time most people in Sudan gained internet access. They simply don't have a laptop or regular internet access. Large businesses and a small number of rich people would have land line telephones and traditional internet, but most people won't.
I feel called out on my own assumptions, and you make some good points. I had assumed that cell phones and wireless data would be a higher "technology tier" than land lines and wired internet (or even widespread home PCs), so would "naturally" be implemented after wired communications. However, the cost of data-capable cell phones _has_ dropped much faster than the (stable-to-increasing) cost of laying out a physical wired communications infrastructure.
Initial thoughts: To switch from 4G to 5G, or do other modifications to the network that required some downtime.
Once the G upgrade was dismissed, and following the touchy "who's the ruler". I would bet there was a coup and they tried to hamper communications to their advantage.
Much better use of it. Yet a half-assed measure.
They wouldn't do everything at once. They'd instead take them down one at a time to keep the number of 'victims' as low as possible
@@rioghander2te Not only that, but switching slowly would allow the phones to switch over to a (farther, slower but working) tower during or in case of downtime.
@@VivekYadav-ds8oz yeah, that was my initial thought as well, just wasn't sure if there was enough overlap, so I didn't include it
Some states in India stop mobile internet from 6am-6pm if there are government exams that day.
The main reason they give is to prevent cheating and leaking of the question paper.
But most of the time the first news that comes up after data is restored is "question paper got leaked".
Corruption always remains in societies.
Reducing it is still useful and important. So they'll keep doing it.
When he said "who's in charge of Sudan is a bit of a tricky question," my mind immediately went to coup. Gotta stop word from spreading
6:08 I have a feeling that Sudan has more important things to worry about right now than students cheating on an exam.
Yeeeahhhh…
It _is_ possible to worry about multiple things at the same time.
@@RFC3514 Generally I agree with your sentiment and express it a lot myself. However, a civil war with no secure access to electricity and sometimes food or water can be pretty time consuming. I doubt there even is something like coordinated exams there right now.
I really love this format.
I love Ella Hubber! And Caroline Roper!
@@Vinyl_Dave poor tom
My initial thought was so that the Sudanese government could apply some sort of spy/monitoring software onto the servers of all the cell service providers in the country to allow them to better surveille its citizens.
Under the guise of cheating prevention... O.O
That wouldn't make much sense. Wouldn't you want the least amount of attention when doing this? So why wouldn't you roll the updates slowly so people can connect to other towers.
"Where does mobile data come from", Tom, you feeling old now? I do.
oml i'm so excited to see the let's learn everything gang on here
why do some people think that "wifi" is some how a synonym of "land internet connection"?😂
Modern apartments are supplied with routers, so younger people just assume its something that's always been this way. You don't go out and get a new router if it breaks, you call your landlord and they supply a new one.
@@JoachimElmesioo while most home devices for internet connection do put router and wifi AP in the same box, a router doesn't need to include wifi capabilities. Routers existed way before wireless technologies were available, so some how your possible explanation makes it even worst than I thought 😂
No wonder people are so easy to scam now days.
@@un_lucio I have a router that doesn't provide wifi, but it is because I already have wifi. I have Google Fiber which is connected in the back of my bedroom then uses wifi to send the connection to a hub in my office. My router is then plugged into the hub. My computers and Playstation are then plugged into the router. I had to specifically look for a router without wifi though.
@@JoachimElmesiooI think it's just because phone have WiFi and mobile data separately under networking
yeah, it's just wireless fireless
I'm new to this podcast. Is the full-length video available somewhere? I can only find the audio version :/
It's true every year in Algeria in june for a whole week. They do it to avoid students cheating on their leaving certificate exam.
Maybe edit it and put it down a few lines
Like this, so that you don’t spoil it straight away for people where RUclips shows a comment right under the vehicle.
Could you put a spoiler on that? It's top comment right now
Little side note here: the reason Airplane Mode exists doesn't actually have to do with disrupting the plane equipment. That's more of a myth, and plane equipment is designed not to be interfered with by cell signals. The reason for Airplane Mode has more to do with the cell towers on the ground. When you're in a plane, you're very far away from the towers, and traveling very fast. That means your phone, if it's not on Airplane Mode, will be constantly trying to connect to one tower with a signal that's weak by the time it reaches it, then go out of range, get disconnected, and try connecting to the next one, repeatedly. That does two things: (1) it kills your battery, but more importantly, (2) it adds a ton of transient overhead traffic to the cell network and eats up bandwidth for the people on the ground, making it more likely to cause an outage.
Effectively, if a plane full of people all have their phones on and in normal mode, they'll act as a jammer for every tower they fly over 😂 THAT is why Airplane Mode exists and is recommended/required on a plane.
I imagine if they disrupted the *plane* you wouldn't be allowed to have them with you at all
There was a nationwide power outage in Tunisia during the 2002(?) FIFA world cup final. Most people did not know the reason and just thought it was a very unfortunate timing that caused us all to miss watching the game. It turned out there was a documentary about torture and many other bad things the dictator government was doing that was broadcasted on an opposition TV station at the same time. Good thing we overthrew that dictator less than 10 years later. Horrible things were happening in Tunisia back then and most of the world did not know about it.
My first thought was to disrupt or prevent a coup.
Huh. Tom said airplane, not aeroplane. He's been corrupted.
Funnily enough, the subtitles say "aeroplane" at that point xD.
@@ukmaxi Yep. I guess he didn't want to admit his mistake. :P
Isn't americans who say "Airplane"?
@@SpaceSoups Generally. Though other places too.
in my teeny bit of experience, "aeroplane" & "airplane" are homonyms. Any discrepancy is more than accounted for by accents.
Would the students not simply look for a nearby wifi network and use that instead?
Wouldn't they all be in a classroom or something doing the exams?
turned off at the ISP, no internet nohow
I cycled into Mauritania on March 8th 2023, and they turned off moblle data for a week as part of a manhunt for Jihadistst who escaped from prison. I wondered if it had been something similar...
It's always depressing when a topic like Sudan comes up and "internet people" - from the generation that theoretically has access to more news and information than ever before - don't say "Didn't they just have a coup or something?"
I immediately thought of squashing protests. And they have actually shut down internet service multiple times to prevent communication about the protests
what might be more depressing is that this entire video I thought they were talking about Saudi Arabia until I read your comment
Tom has repeatedly stated in this podcast that he tries to keep his questions PG, and even in this he immediately tries to move over from the question of "Who is Sudan's ruler?", so it kinda makes sense that that's not talked about. (Or at least, *shown* to be talked about; Tom's not shy of his Movie Magics)
3:58 "WiFi is up" doesn't have any meaning in a broad sense. It's a local wireless access technology which connects you to a (mostly wired) wide-area network.
Except you typically wouldn't say the "WiFi is up" if you couldn't access the internet. It has plenty of meaning when used as the colloquialism it is.
4:06, Tom had released this video two days prior: ruclips.net/video/OgMXjAQ5q14/видео.html
is Tom Lum wearing a Rainylune merch cap ?
👍👍
My initial guess was there was a coap or something
Not sure the comment about the Whales and aeroplanes is true. The sound has to travel from the medium of air to water and typically whales utilise very high frequencies compared to the lower frequencies generated by a civilian aircraft. I did a quick google just now and yeah, if anything, all I can find are articles to the contrary with aircraft specifically, unless they fly at very low altitude across open ocean.
whales use high pitch for local communication and low for long-distance.
well I was totally wrong. I thought it was about phone activated Bombs and a national event
I was sold on the fact that the Sudanese government was trying to prevent a coup from South Sudan loyal factions.
The audience wins :)
I was thinking of a coup or riot or something along those lines. My factoid to contribute; I'm not sure which one, probably around the Arab Spring, they pulled the whole Internet offline, but the normal phone lines were OK. So neighbouring countries dusted off Dial-up Internet servers and made them freely available to numbers from that country. Your not watching RUclips, but you'd be able to tweet, use WhatsApp or Telegram. Enough so you could still coordinate with your fellow rioters. I thought that was neat.
My first thought was "is it political?".
If it's anything like Iraq, and it probably is, the answer would be
to avoid leaking highschool exams.
Edit: at least that unpleasant experience let me get this right
Well, a few years ago, it if was anything like Iraq, the answer would be...
... to make it harder to detonate roadside bombs.
august of 2020 in Belarus, you know...
Aussie here, I haven't been in school in close to 25yrs however I imagine the schools & education department have made many steps to curb phone cheating by this stage (20xx) considering how tech savvy kids are nowadays.
They banned watches in the UK around 2015-2017. That's all watches. In the early times, you could take it off and place it on the table though. I don't know if that's still the case, or it's a complete ban
Captions at 2:08 say "why find" rather than "wifi"
Thanks, have fixed.
Because you could refund it up until the 3 hour mark
I thought it was to maybe stop a protest or maybe some form of mass public event crow control
But wait, they left wifi on so people could take the exams from home, couldn't students just use the wifi connection to Google these answers?
I hope this change didn't happen too.... Sudan. 😎😎😎
I'm confused. Don't phones have wifi?
The schools most likely turned off their internet access on WiFi for the exam.
@@OLBastholm but they weren't at school, it was during quarantine. They would have been at home and presumably had access to wired internet or WiFi
@@OntarioTrafficMan not every country had quarantine
@@OntarioTrafficMan According to wiki (so take it or leave it) schools in Sudan reopened in Sept 2020 after 6 months of closure. Which fits with the date in the question.
turned off at the ISP, no internet nohow
No pointless points? What sort of British panel show is this?
Egypt in the thumbnail, I click. (No 5G in there)
BTW, in 2020, when there was online exams in Egypt for the first two secondary grade years, all of the students (except who didn't take the exams) passed the year they were in (including me), because the (currently former) ministry of education was aware about the answers being around the internet.
Yeah that was a fever dream , and even though i am currently in 3rd secondary i still can't comprehend that secondary is changed
Atmospheric sound does not penetrate the oceans. There is acoustic impedance that is in scale of 1: 1000, you need 1000 units of sound pressure in air to have 1 unit of sound pressure in the water. Go under water, tell your friend to yell as loud as he can on above the surface, without his lungs and throat being in the water, preferable from a pier or a platform so that we don't get vibrations thru the body directly to the water. You won't hear shit, and what you do hear is muffled as the attenuation is higher the higher the frequency.
If you can barely hear a plane overhead, the whales will not be hearing it either. What makes boat noises much worse problem is that they are directly in contact with the water and thus we don't get that same acoustic impedance that lowers sound energy. Once you do get the water molecules to vibrate, they will transmit sound energy very well.
Researchers have found that relatively low-flying aircraft can disturb whales up to around 150 metres below the surface. There are "do not fly" zones near some airports to limit disruption to them. baleinesendirect.org/en/do-planes-and-helicopters-disturb-whales/
@@lateralcast Yup, that is not that much of a surprise, they do make hell of a lot of noise. But, inverse square law is still in effect, there are not a lot of airplanes flying 600m from the surface on the open seas, and doubling the distance means four times less intensity. At the heights airplanes fly by far most of the time they are not a problem. Boats on the other hand... totally a different scale problem.
No reason to break tradition. Just spend an appropiate amount. I'll do it for a fiver.
when she said whales i thought she meabt he country
Why are so many of the guesses so bad? Is this group trying to lose?
If you're not cheating you're not trying.
if you get caught cheating you weren't trying hard enough.