IDLIB, Syria — The means of communication in Syria have always been limited. After President Bashar al-Assad came to power in 2000, he sponsored what he called an information technology revolution and licensed two telecommunications companies, Syriatel and MTN. There were no mobile or Internet networks in Syria before 2000.

Syriatel is owned by Rami Makhlouf, Assad's cousin, while MTN Group is a multinational mobile telecommunications company. The Syrian regime thus controlled and was able to tap all wired and wireless Syrian communications. Following the outbreak of the revolution against the ruling regime in March 2011, Assad exploited his domination over the sector. He cut off communications in all regions opposing him or where the Syrian army intended to subjugate to stop any communication between the population and the activists of the opposition.

Abu Mohammed (a pseudonym) is a Syrian fighter with the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in the countryside of Homs. He told Al-Monitor, “We started using walkie-talkies at the start of our military action. We benefited from the dissident officers' previous experiences in this field. These devices are very useful, and we use them to coordinate with each other, communicate and warn each other of imminent dangers in the absence of any telephone or communication networks.”

Engineer Samir al-Rai from Homs explained to Al-Monitor via Skype how these handheld devices operate. He said, “Walkie-talkies operate on the same system as radios. A central device transmits and receives short-range signals from the walkie-talkie at different frequencies and then retransmits these signals. For example, when a call is made from walkie-talkie 1 on a wave with a specific frequency, the central device identifies the wave and receives the call through a network to be installed on a high place. The central device then retransmits the call to all walkie-talkies operating on this wave. This is how the call reaches everyone holding the device.”