Tuesday, June 28, 2005

Internet crashes in Pakistan

Wow! This piece of news really surprises me.

Not that an undersea network cable failed. That does happen from time to time.

What surprises me is that Pakistan doesn't seem to have any other connectivity to the rest of the world. At least no other connectivity with sufficient bandwidth to cover the loss. (The article does say that they have satellite backup, but it doesn't appear to have enough bandwidth.) No other undersea cables, no satellite uplinks of sufficient capacity, and no land-lines to other countries (like India).

I realize that this region of the world is far from safe, and that Pakistan has security problems with all of its neighbors, but I would have thought that the telecommunications companies involved (even if they are government-owned) would have found a way to cut through the politics and run the cables necessary to prevent this kind of problem from occurring.

I obviously assumed incorrectly.

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