Fergie's Tech Blog

Telecom Links: Reminder of Reliance on U.S.

Wayne Arnold writes on The International Herald Tribune:

For all its vaunted ubiquity, the Internet is still defined by nationality, shaped by geography and dominated by the United States.

Asia was served a painful reminder of that Wednesday when an earthquake off the coast of Taiwan severed crucial undersea telecommunications cables carrying as much as three-quarters of the region's data from Southeast Asia to Northeast Asia and onward across the Pacific. Communications across the region ground to a standstill as voice and data traffic vied for space on alternate cables and satellite links.

Several major cables were cut, according to telecommunications executives, including the Asia Pacific Cable Network, which links North and Southeast Asia, and the SEA-ME-WE-2 link, which stretches from South Korea around the Eurasian landmass to the Netherlands. Technicians said they could not estimate how long it would take to repair the cables.

posted by Fergie @ 12/27/2006 10:33:00 AM