Egypt quits net to stifle protest

28 January 2011 Last updated at 05:14 ET

Internet connections across Egypt appear to have been cut, as authorities gear up for a day of mass protest.

Net analysis firms and web watchers have reported that the vast majority of the country's internet has become unreachable.

The unprecedented crack down will leave millions of Egyptians without internet access.

There have been unprecedented protest in the country over the past few days - much of it co-ordinated via the web.

According to internet monitoring firm Renesys, shortly before 2300 GMT on 27 January virtually all routes to Egyptian networks were simultaneously withdrawn from the internet's global routing table.

That meant that virtually all of Egypt's internet addresses were unreachable.

Egyptian authorities seem to have manged this by shutting down official Domain Name Servers (DNS) in Egypt. These act as address books and are consulted by web browsing software to find out the location of a site a user wants to visit.

Messages circulating in Egypt pointed people towards unofficial DNS servers so they could get back online.

Unprecedented action

That sudden drop off has been confirmed by other web traffic watchers, including Arbor Networks and BGP Mon.

"The government seems to be taking a shotgun approach by ordering ISP's to stop routing all networks," said Andree Toonk, a researcher at BGP Mon.

People and businesses within the country that relied on the four main ISPs have been cut off, Renesys' chief technology officer, James Cowie wrote on the company's blog.

"Link Egypt, Vodafone/Raya, Telecom Egypt, Etisalat Misr, and all their customers and partners are, for the moment, off the air," he wrote.

Severing the majority of a country's internet connections respresents "is unprecedented in internet history", said Rik Ferguson, a security researcher at Trend Micro.

Domino effect

Earlier this week, Egyptians had reported being unable to access social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. At the time the Egyptian government denied it was behind the block, saying it supported free speech.

Many of the protesters were able to get round those restrictions by using smartphone apps - which had not been blocked - to access those sites.

Others used proxy servers - which divert web traffic to its destination via sites that haven't been blocked.

Those initial restrictions now appear to have been a precursor to a much more stringent communication clamp down.

Elsewhere, unconfirmed reports suggest that mobile users have been blocked from receiving text messages.

But protesters continue to circumvent the net blockade. One Twitter user, @EgyptFreedomNow claimed it is still possible for Egyptians to access the internet using dial up connections.

The protests in Egypt followed similar unrest in Tunisia, which saw the collapse of Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali's government.

Amid fears of a domino effect in the Middle East, other regimes are following Egypt's lead in restricting access to some sites.

The Syrian authorities have banned certain programmes that allows access to Facebook's Chat application.

The Egyptian Consulate in London was not answering calls at the time of writing.

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Net approaches address exhaustion

28 January 2011 Last updated at 06:01 ET By Mark Ward Technology correspondent, BBC News

The last big blocks of the net's dwindling stock of addresses are about to be handed out.

The event that triggers their distribution is widely expected to take place in the next few days.

When that happens each of the five regional agencies that hand out net addresses will get one of the remaining blocks of 16 million addresses.

The addresses in those last five blocks are expected to be completely exhausted by September 2011.

Final five

The trigger event will likely come from the agency that oversees net addresses in the Asia-Pacific region, a body known as Apnic.

When Apnic's store of addresses falls below a key threshold, said Geoff Huston, chief scientist at the agency, it will ask for more from the central repository - the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA).

"When IANA process this request that will leave it with five /8s in its pool," said Geoff Huston, chief scientist at the Asia Pacific registry.

A "/8" is the biggest block of net addresses that IANA hands out and comprises about 16 million addresses.

"That will trigger the IANA to activate its 'final /8' actions, which entail the IANA handing out a final /8 to each of the five regional internet registries," said Mr Huston.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

If you do not have any plans for IPv6 now you are irresponsible"

End Quote Axel Pawlik

IANA is expected to formally hand over the final five in a ceremony in mid-March that will signal the beginning of the end for this pool of addresses.

The internet was built on version 4 of the Internet Protocol (IPv4) which has an upper limit of about four billion addresses. In the 1970s when IPv4 was drawn up this seemed enough but the explosion in the use of the net has led to its rapid depletion.

Making plans

Axel Pawlik, managing director of RIPE which hands out net addresses in Europe, said he expected the entire stock to run dry in September 2011.

"It might be earlier," he said "as we have had some quite significant growth."

"There have been a lot of big requests for addresses," he said, "specifically in the US and Asia but that's not a surprise as they have all the people there and the growth too."

Mr Pawlik said Ripe and other regional registries have been rationing requests for addresses for some time. Enough addresses to last two years used to be given out, he said, but now it only supplied sufficient to last six months.

The 16 million addresses in the last block /8 assigned to Europe could run out quickly, he said, as people woke up to the fact that there are not many left.

Plus, he said, Ripe and other agencies were planning to reserve a chunk of addresses for new entrants and to help with migration to the new addressing scheme - IP version 6 (IPV6).

While number of requests for IPv6 addresses was rising, said Mr Pawlik, it was not happening fast enough.

"If you do not have any plans for IPv6 now you are irresponsible," said Mr Pawlik, "They should have that in place, if they do not have that by now something is going seriously wrong."

Mr Pawlik said there would not be chaos once the IPv4 addresses were used up. However, he said, it made sense to start switching as the technical work-arounds to cope with a lack of IPv4 addresses were unwieldy and limited.

"IPv6 is the solution," he said.

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Police hold five over web attacks

27 January 2011 Last updated at 07:59 ET

Five men have been arrested over a spate of recent web attacks in support of Wikileaks.

The five males are being held after a series of arrests at residential addresses in the West Midlands, Northamptonshire, Hertfordshire, Surrey and London this morning.

The men were arrested in relation to recent and ongoing attacks by an online group that calls itself "Anonymous".

Targets included the websites of PayPal, Mastercard and Amazon.

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UK moves closer to mobile wallet

26 January 2011 Last updated at 20:16 ET

Paying for a sandwich will soon be possible via mobile phones as network operator Everything Everywhere rolls out what it claims is the UK's first mobile payments service.

The service, due for launch in summer 2011, sees the mobile phone operator partnering with Barclaycard.

Businesses that have contactless technology include Pret a Manger, Little Chef and the National Trust.

More services are expected to roll out in the run up to the 2012 Olympics.

The London games is seen as an epicentre for contactless payments, with sponsors such as Visa and Transport for London heavily involved in so-called Near Field Communication (NFC), the short range wireless technology that underpins many wireless payment systems.

In 2009 O2 trialled contactless payments, using mobiles in place of the popular Oyster card which allows commuters to pay for their tube journeys.

By the time of the Olympics it is expected that transactions, transport and tickets will all be available via contactless technology.

Mobile wallet

Consumers can already take advantage of contactless technology in the UK, if their credit or debit card is enabled - designated on Barclaycards, for example, with a wireless symbol.

There are already 11.6 million contactless credit and debit card in circulation.

Users with a contactless mobile, as with contactless cards, will only currently be able to use them for small payments of up to �15.

Moving the experience on to the mobile is something consumers want, according to Jason Rees, head of m-payments at Everything Everywhere.

"Studies show that people are more likely to forget their wallets than their mobile phones. Trials have proved that customers love it, they love the simplicity of having their wallet all in one place and it means there is no more need to carry cash," he said.

Everything Everywhere plans to extend its contactless services.

"We want to use the technology for loyalty cards and to get more information, for example, by tapping on a poster," said Mr Rees.

In Japan and Korea, handsets have come equipped with wireless payment chips for some years.

David Chan, chief executive of Barclaycard's consumer division thinks there is a natural fit between the phone and the wallet.

"I believe that future generations will find it surprising that early this century we were still carrying separate items to buy goods and to communicate with each other," he said.

A report by the Payments Council, which oversees payments strategy in the UK, said in a recent report that "by 2050, using cash could well be a minority activity".

Juniper Research predicts that one in six mobile devices will be contactless by 2014.

Ben Wood, an analyst with research firm CCS Insight, predicts that NFC will open up a host of applications, beyond paying for goods.

"Payments is going to be the anchor application but you can imagine shops having a NFC sticker which you simply touch with your phone to check yourself into Google or Facebook. Or imagine touching a digital photo frame and being able to transfer a picture," he said.

"There are going to be some incredibly cool ways to use it," he added.

It is rumoured that Apple will incorporate NFC in its next iPhone.

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Facebook blames bug for 'hacking'

26 January 2011 Last updated at 10:59 ET

Mystery surrounds the apparent hacking of a Facebook page used by fans of the site's founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Overnight, a cryptic message was posted to the page in the name of the 26-year old billionaire founder calling for the site to become a "social business" with investment from its users.

The message has led to suggestions that the the site was hacked or Mr Zuckerberg's account was compromised.

Facebook has so far declined to comment on the incident.

Take down

The message, left in the name of Mr Zuckerberg, read: "Let the hacking begin: If Facebook needs money, instead of going to the banks, why doesn't Facebook let its users invest in Facebook in a social way?

"Why not transform Facebook into a 'social business' the way Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus described it?"

Muhammad Yunus is a Nobel Peace Prize winner and the founder of the Grameen Bank, which offers small loans to people who have no collateral to get started in business.

The message also linked to a recently edited Wikipedia article about social business and asked readers: "what do you think?"

In addition, it linked to a page for the Hacker Cup, an annual programming event organised by Facebook. Many have interpreted this as a sign that the hacker feels they should win the competition.

A detailed analysis of the message by the Guardian newspaper turned up some clues about the hacker, but has failed to identify them.

The cryptic Facebook post attracted nearly 2,000 comments before it was taken down, but not before technology blog TechCrunch spotted it.

The page, which has nearly three million fans, has also been moved to a new address, according to researcher Graham Cluley of security firm Sophos.

He said that because the site was a public fan page, which are used to promote everything from businesses and products to bands and public figures, it was likely run by Facebook staff.

"It's quite possible that other people than Zuckerberg had access," he said.

"It could have been one of those that got hacked," he said.

The hacker may have got access to the account, he said, via a poorly chosen password or spyware installed on an employee's computer that stole the password.

Walk away

He said the password could also have been stolen when an employee was accessing the unsecured version of the site over an unencrypted wi-fi network.

Last year, a tool called Firesheep was released that that made it easy for anyone sharing an unsecure connection to grab login information for many unsecure sites, including Facebook.

"I can easily imagine that something like that could have happened," said Mr Cluley.

Facebook has just released new tools aimed at shoring up user's accounts against tools like FireSheep, by allowing people to always connect via a secure connection.

However, Mr Cluley admitted that the site may not have been hacked at all and the post may have been made by a disgruntled employee.

"The other possibility is that [Mr Zuckerberg] strode away from his desk for a while and someone grabbed it and typed the message in.

"Although you wouldn't think that would do much for their job prospects".

The incident comes days after the account of French president Nicolas Sarkozy was also hacked to suggest that he was resigning.

"As a general rule this can happen to anyone," said Mr Cluley.

"Just because a person is famous or well known doesn't mean that everything that is posted from their account is legitimate."

Mr Zuckerberg's private account appears not to have been affected.

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O2 plans UK-wide wi-fi network

26 January 2011 Last updated at 06:27 ET

Mobile operator O2 is launching free wireless in the UK, which it promises will be double the size of existing networks by 2013.

Initially the hotspots will be available in 450 O2-owned sites but will be expanded to other locations, including shops and restaurants.

Previously 02 had offered free wi-fi on some of its tariffs via BT Openzone and The Cloud.

The Cloud is rumoured to be close to sealing a buy-out deal with Sky.

Premium

O2 said access to the hotspots would be through a simple sign-up process and would be free to both 02 and non-02 customers.

For Jeremy Green, a principal analyst with Ovum, the move is a "step in the right direction" to sorting out 02's capacity issues, brought about by high iPhone ownership and the increasing desire for data on the move.

"450 sites is not fantastic coverage and wi-fi isn't something that smartphone users will be able to rely on but it is a gesture in the right direction," he said.

He said it was "surprising" that O2 was prepared to offer it free to non-customers, something the firm is hoping to fund via advertising.

In a swipe at BT's Fon network, which offers connections which piggyback on BT home broadband networks, O2 said that its service would offer "premium public hotspots, as opposed to using residential connections with limited bandwidth".

BT's Openzone and Fon networks are currently the biggest networks in the UK.

The second largest The Cloud claims to have around 22,000 hotspots.

BT recently launched an iPad app allowing its broadband customers to gain access to wi-fi hotspots around the country.

It already has Android and iPhone apps, which has proved popular, attracting 400,000 downloads.

Rival Virgin Media is also toying with the idea of creating a nationwide wi-fi network.

Years away

O2 wants to help kick-start more wi-fi usage.

"Only 20% of people who have access to free public wi-fi on 02 tariffs actively use it despite the majority of devices being wi-fi enabled," said O2's business development director Tim Sefton

"We know that wi-fi as a technology has great potential and can be a very fast service, however customers are discouraged by barriers which include complexity in activation, uncertainty of where wi-fi is free and the variable quality of the current experience," he added.

Mr Green said that 02's wi-fi network would have to go hand-in-hand with other network upgrades.

O2 said that it is continuing to invest in its existing network but Mr Sefton confessed to UK technology news site TechRadar that it would be "years rather than months before we'll have a commercial 4G network".

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Egypt protests face net clampdown

26 January 2011 Last updated at 05:39 ET By Jonathan Fildes Technology reporter, BBC News

Egypt appears to have clamped down on web services, such as Twitter, that have been used to help organise anti-government protests in Cairo.

Twitter confirmed that its service has been blocked in Egypt on Tuesday from around 1600GMT.

A Swedish mobile video site called Bambuser also reported that it had been blocked around the same time.

However, the Facebook page used to co-ordinate many of the protests has remained online.

Facebook has not said whether it has implemented any technical measures to keep the site up and running but a spokesperson said that it was "seeing consistent levels of traffic".

The social network, which has more than 600m users, recently was forced to intervene when it emerged that political protest pages in Tunisia were being hacked and passwords stolen, seemingly at the behest of the former government.

The site implemented a series of technical measures to counter the attacks, including encrypting all requests for the site from within Tunisia.

'Right to protest'

Details of the blocks in Egypt began to emerge on Tuesday afternoon, as thousands of people joined a "day of revolt" against the government of President Hosni Mubarak.

Initially it was unclear whether state authorities were blocking internet access or if mobile networks were simply overloaded by the numbers of people gathering in the streets.

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The BBC's Jon Leyne, who is in Cairo, said the protests like this in Egypt were rare

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Twitter were at first unwilling to comment, instead directing people towards Herdict, a website created by a group at Harvard University, which collects reports of websites that are down.

The site has seen a small spike in the number of reports about Twitter from Egypt.

But overnight, Twitter issued a statement..

"We can confirm that Twitter was blocked in Egypt around 8am PT today. It is impacting both Twitter.com and applications."

The block had previously been confirmed by BBC readers and telecom operator Vodafone Egypt, which sought to reassure customers that it was not responsible.

"We didn't block Twitter - it's a problem all over Egypt and we are waiting for a solution," it said.

Some Twitter messages - many tagged #jan25 to show they were in support of the demonstrations - seemed to have got through via text messages and some third-party applications.

Bambuser, a service that allows people to stream live video from a phone to a website or a Facebook page, also said that it had been hit by the ban.

"We are working hard to ensure access resumes for the Egyptian community and stand by them in their quest for the right to protest," it said.

Street ban

In support of the protests, a collective of online "hacktivists" known as Anonymous claimed to have taken down the Egyptian interior ministry's web page.

Anonymous came to prominence for its cyber-attacks on the websites of companies it deemed to be anti-Wikileaks.

It has since turned its attention to supporting the protests in Tunisia and Egypt.

The group uses so-called "denial-of-service" attacks, that seek to swamp websites with large volumes of traffic, until they are knocked offline.

The group was one of many that also offered advice to the protesters on how to evade blocks on sites and services.

However, some sites appear to have escaped the block.

Google-owned video sharing website YouTube, which has been used to share film of the protests, has seemingly not been blocked.

Protesters are also turning to other digital tools to help.

For example, a map has been set up by the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, for people to report arrests, and harassment during the protests.

The digital blocks come as the government issued a ban on street protests.

Public gatherings, protests and marches are all now prohibited, the country's official news agency reports.

Are you in Cairo? Did you attend the protests? Send us your comments using the form below.

Send your pictures and videos to yourpics@bbc.co.uk or text them to 61124 (UK) or +44 7725 100 100 (International). If you have a large file you can upload here.

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Unified memory heralds green PCs

25 January 2011 Last updated at 06:21 ET

A new form of computing memory which could lead to faster starting, user-friendly computers has been developed by US researchers.

The device, developed by a team at North Carolina State University, claims to combine the advantages of two commons forms of memory used today.

The "unified" memory device, outlined in the journal IEEE Computer, is still undergoing testing.

But the team believe it could form the basis of PCs that start immediately.

Permanent speed

Currently, computers rely on two distinct forms of memory: volatile and non-volatile.

The type of memory used depends on whether data needs to be accessed quickly or stored permanently.

Volatile technologies such as random access memory (RAM) or its newer variation DRAM, store data in such a way that it can be read and written rapidly, making it ideal for rapid computations. But the data is lost when the power is switched off.

By contrast, non-volatile memory devices, such as the flash drives found in memory cards, USB dongles and MP3 players, can retain information for long periods without power.

But the device created by Dr Paul Franzon and his team combines the speed of DRAM while being able to switch to a more persistent mode of storage.

That would potentially enable computer makers to build machines that boot up almost instantly, as the information needed to start up the machine could be stored in fast memory, said Dr Franzon.

It could also lead to servers that can be powered down, when not in use.

Currently, the servers found in most data centres continue to slurp energy even when their processors are idle because the server memory cannot be turned off without affecting performance.

Lasting memory

The device developed by Dr Franzon's team - known as a double floating-gate field effect transistor - stores data in the form of a charge, like non-volatile memory but uses a special control gate to enable the stored data to be accessed quickly.

Today's flash memory devices use a single floating gate to store an electric charge, which represents data. "We realised that a second gate would allow us to transfer charges really quickly," said Dr Frazon.

His team have shown they can transfer charges - in effect change the data - in around 15 nanoseconds. "That's comparable with DRAM speeds," he added.

When in non-volatile mode, the data will be stored safely for a couple of years.

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Law firm stops chasing &#39;pirates&#39;

25 January 2011 Last updated at 03:43 ET By Jane Wakefield Technology reporter

A lawyer has dramatically withdrawn from pursuing alleged illegal file-sharers in the middle of a court case he brought.

The patent court in London is currently scrutinising 26 cases brought by ACS: Law on behalf of its client MediaCAT.

The law firm had sent thousands of letters to alleged file-sharers.

Those who received such letters may pursue ACS: Law for harrassment, said law firm Ralli, which represents some of the defendants.

In a statement read to the court, solicitor Andrew Crossley said he had now ceased all such work.

He cited criminal attacks and bomb threats as reasons.

"I have ceased my work...I have been subject to criminal attack. My e-mails have been hacked. I have had death threats and bomb threats," he said in the statement, read to the court by MediaCAT's barrister Tim Ludbrook.

"It has caused immense hassle to me and my family," he added.

In September, ACS: Law was the victim of a cyber attack and it accidentally exposed thousands of its e-mails online when its website went live again.

These e-mails detailed all the people it was pursuing and the pornographic films they were accused of downloading for free.

The data breach is the subject of an ongoing investigation by the Information Commissioner, and Mr Crossley could face a hefty fine.

ACS: Law hit the headlines when it began sending thousands of letters to alleged file-sharers, on behalf of client MediaCAT.

Consumer group Which? has accused it of sending letters to innocent people, while some ISPs have refused to hand over details about their customers.

"It can be incredibly upsetting for people to recieve these letters and they may well have a claim in harrassment," said Michael Forrester, a solicitor at law firm Ralli, which represents some of the defendants in the current case.

Groups such as the BPI, which represents music labels, have criticised its methods.

Judicial scrutiny

Those methods hinge on a partnership between ACS: Law and MediaCAT, which in turn has signed deals with various copyright holders allowing it to pursue copyright infringement cases on their behalf.

Continue reading the main story

Analysis

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The case of MediaCAT versus 26 alleged illegal file-sharers is proving as dramatic as a Dickensian court drama.

Judge Birss described the twists and turns as "mind-boggling" as more details emerge about how ACS: Law and its colourful solicitor Andrew Crossley went about chasing alleged pirates.

But among the debates about the competence of ACS: Law and its real motives, is some evidence which could provide an interesting test of such cases in the future.

Both barristers for the defendants have questioned whether IP addresses - the numerical code which identifies the network connection - can be used as evidence and Judge Birss has raised doubts about whether accusing someone of "allowing" their network to be used for illegal file-sharing is a watertight argument.

With the government pledging to get tough on net pirates, there will be many waiting to see what Judge Birss says when he delivers his judgement in a few days.

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• Net piracy gets its day in court

The court heard that copyright owners receive a 30% share of any recouped revenue while ACS: Law takes a 65% share.

Members of the public who received letters were given the choice of paying a fine of around �500 or going to court.

Detractors have accused Mr Crossley of seeking to make money with no intention of taking any cases to court.

In his statement, Mr Crossley denied this.

"It has always been my intention to litigate and, but for the fact that I have ceased this work, my intention was to litigate forcefully in these 26 cases," he said.

Mr Crossley is subject to an ongoing investigation by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

Even before Mr Crossley's statement, the court case had been highly unusual.

ACS: Law's client MediaCAT wants to drop the cases, and letters have already been sent to the defendants informing them that action against them has been dropped.

Not happy

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

I am getting the impression with every twist and turn since I started looking at these cases that there is a desire to avoid any judicial scrutiny"

End Quote Judge Birss

But Judge Birss said granting permission to discontinue the cases was not a simple matter, due largely to the fact that the actual copyright holders were not in court.

This meant that, in theory, these copyright holders could continue to pursue cases against the 26 defendants.

"Why should they be vexed a second time?" he asked.

Judge Birss also questioned why MediaCAT wanted to drop the cases.

"I want to tell you that I am not happy. I am getting the impression with every twist and turn since I started looking at these cases that there is a desire to avoid any judicial scrutiny," he said.

The case was made more complicated by the fact that a new firm, GCB Ltd, had begun sending similar letters, including one to one of the defendants who had been told just the day before that no further action would be taken.

Judge Birss said he was considering banning MediaCAT from sending any more such letters until the issues raised by the cases had been resolved.

Doing so, he said, would be a highly unusual move but one made more likely by the fact that Mr Crossley had said in his statement that there were "no new letters pending" and that GCB Ltd had also halted its work.

The judge was keen to find out what the relationship was between GCB and ACS: Law, something Mr Crossley sought to clarify in his statement.

He said that he had no connection with GCB Ltd beyond the fact that the founders of the firm had previously been employed at ACS: Law.

The case has raised some serious questions about how copyright firms pursue file-sharers.

Barristers acting on behalf of the accused questioned whether an IP address - a number assigned to every device connecting to the internet - could be used to identify the person who downloaded illegal content.

Barrister Guy Tritton also questioned the nature of the letters sent by ACS: Law, asking why it described MediaCAT as a "copyright protection society" - a title that he said was "misleading".

Judge Birss is expected to deliver his judgement on the case later in the week.

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Mobile phone to blast into orbit

23 January 2011 Last updated at 20:02 ET By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News

British engineers are planning to put a mobile phone in space.

The team at Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) in Guildford want to see if the sophisticated capabilities in today's phones will function in the most challenging environment known.

The phone will run on Google's Android operating system but the exact model has not yet been disclosed.

It will be used to control a 30cm-long satellite and take pictures of the Earth in the mission later this year.

Although mobile phones have been flown on high altitude balloons before, this would likely be the first time such a device has gone into orbit several hundred kilometres above the planet.

"Modern smartphones are pretty amazing," said SSTL project manager Shaun Kenyon.

"They come now with processors that can go up to 1GHz, and they have loads of flash memory. First of all, we want to see if the phone works up there, and if it does, we want to see if the phone can control a satellite."

High Street product

The venture is part of the company's quest to find more inexpensive, off-the-shelf electronics that can be used to lower the cost of its spacecraft designs.

The mission is known as STRaND-1 (Surrey Training Research and Nanosatellite Demonstration).

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

We're trying to use as much of the capability of the phone as possible"

End Quote Doug Liddle Head of science, SSTL.

It involves both the company and researchers from the local university's Surrey Space Centre (SSC).

Much of the development work has been done in team-members' spare time.

The mobile model being used will be a standard, sub-�300 ($450), smartphone available in High Street stores.

"We're not taking it apart; we're not gutting it; we're not taking out the printed circuit boards and re-soldering them into our satellite - we're flying it as is," Mr Kenyon explained.

"And, in fact, we're going to have another camera on the satellite so we can take a picture of the phone because we want to operate the screen and have some good images of that as well."

Eye on Earth

Critical to the whole endeavour is the phone's operating system.

Android is open source software which means SSTL's engineers can modify it to adapt the phone's functions.

The great swings in temperature and the harsh radiation found in space require the phone be placed inside the satellite casing to give it some protection.

A hole will have to be cut in the side of the casing therefore to allow the phone's camera lens to see out.

The phone itself will not "call home"; messages and pictures will come back via the satellite's radio link.

For the first part of the mission, the mobile will act as the back-up to the main computer on the spacecraft.

After a period of time, however, the phone will be put in charge.

"We're trying to use as much of the capability of the phone as possible," said Doug Liddle, head of science at SSTL.

"Ideally, the phone can take control and do the thinking."

Busy months

To precisely point and manoeuvre, the satellite will be incorporating advanced guidance, navigation and control systems including miniature reaction wheels, and a GPS receiver, as well as innovative pulse plasma thrusters to propel it through space.

The intention is that the phone be given the chance to oversee all these subsystems.

"The open source nature of the software is very exciting because you can see how further down the line, once we've got the phone working in orbit, we could get people to develop apps for it," Mr Liddle added.

Chris Bridges from the Surrey Space Centre commented: "If a smartphone can be proved to work in space, it opens up lots of new technologies to a multitude of people and companies for space who usually can't afford it. It's a real game-changer for the industry."

SSTL has earned a worldwide reputation for its small satellites. The company has managed to reduce the cost of its systems by incorporating components that were originally developed for consumer products such as laptops.

The coming months will see the company launch Earth observation spacecraft for Nigerian, Russian and Canadian customers.

It is also about to start building the spacecraft that will form the initial constellation of Galileo, Europe's multi-billion-euro answer to America's GPS network.

Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk

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