Analyzing the Internet Collapse
February 8, 2008 | 12:33 pm | by t-blender |Rate It:
technologyReview.com: Almost simultaneously, two separate undersea fiber-optic cables connecting Europe with Egypt, and eventually with the Middle East and India, were cut…
Whatever the cause, the effects were immediate. According to its telecommunications ministry, Egypt initially lost 70 percent of its connection to the outside Internet and 30 percent of service to its call-center industry, which depended less on the lines. Between 50 and 60 percent of India’s Net outbound connectivity was similarly lost on the westbound route critical to the nation’s burgeoning outsourcing industry.
“This [fiber path across the Mediterranean] is a choke point, which until recently was a very lightly trafficked route where there wasn’t great need for cable,” says Tim Strong, an analyst at telecommunications research firm Telegeography Research. “There are many new cables planned for the region, but as it happens, they’re not in service yet.”
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