Internet Traffic Bypasses US

Overseas ISPs choose to Route Traffic Outside of Country

Sep 9, 2008 Ed Oswald

Whereas just a decade ago nearly three-quarters of all Internet traffic passed through the country, now only a quarter of all traffic does.

The estimates come from University of Minnesota researcher Andrew M. Odlyzko, who studies Internet growth and structure for the school. He also added that the fact that Internet traffic outside of the US is increasing much more rapidly is helping to accelerate the decline.

Odlyzko has been conducting the studies since 2002, and notes that traffic outside of the US, most notably in South Korea, can total the entire traffic for all of North America with far less population.

Such a shift does have some security implications: whereas the US government could have used the traffic passing through the country to its advantage and look for possible threats, that is becoming less feasible.

Overseas Companies Worry About Privacy

Reasons for the shift are probably closely related to that fact. With the passage of the Patriot Act, overseas corporations have become increasingly distrustful of the US' intentions.

Thus, investments have been made to begin to build interregional networks so that if traffic does not need to pass through the US to make it to its destination, it will not. Developing countries are the most frequent to connect themselves to other networks not directly linked to the US.

Cutting the Internet Cord to the US

Georgia is one of these countries that rely on connections to the global Internet from a country other than the US. It's main connection flows through Russia and Turkey: this allowed hackers to play games with the country's Internet access during fighting there.

The country is in the midst of building a third line that would connect it to Bulgaria, however that will not be completed until later this month.

Countries like these understand that Internet networks are as much a vital part of infrastructure these days as a road or bridge. Thus, they see value in owning their own piece of the Internet rather than have another country controlling their online strategies.

Routing Outside of US Not Without Peril

Also, companies in the same country will connect with different ISPs out of corporate strategy and the like, causing strange networking structures. When an internet problem occurs, such as a cut cable, it could viably cut off entire regions or countries from the rest of the Internet.

"This has to lead one to wonder what is going to happen to the US in the large global Internet scheme of things," Steven Hodson recently wrote for Mashable.

"When you consider that it is being run by companies who don't appear to be interested in advancing the technology anymore and you have countries going around them for various reasons it doesn't bode well for the country."

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