OK, this is interesting:
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iRQi2agl1ORyqre-b3ZTP83Zt_EwD8UH49500 “Most telecom companies have capacity at multiple systems, so if one goes out, they simply reroute to a different system,” said Stephan Beckert, analyst at research firm TeleGeography in Washington. “It’s just that in this case, both the main route and the backup route got cut for a lot of companies.”
The two cables — FLAG Europe Asia and SEA-ME-WE 4 — were cut on the ocean floor just north of Alexandria, Egypt.
By an accident of geography and global politics, Egypt is a choke point in the global communications network, just as it is with global shipping. The reasons are the same: The country touches both the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, which flows into the India Ocean.
The slim fiber-optic cables that carry the world’s communications are much like ships, in that they’re the cheapest way for carrying things over long distances. Pulling cable overland is much more expensive and requires negotiation with landowners and governments.
So fiber-optic cables that go from Europe to India take the sea route via Egypt’s Suez Canal, just as ships do.
Another Mediterranean cable makes land not far away, in Israel.
But there’s no cable overland from Israel into Jordan and to the Persian Gulf, which could have provided a redundant connection for the Gulf States and India. Going overland would have been more expensive and politically difficult — Israel and Arab countries would have to cooperate.
There is also no route that goes through Russia, Iran and Pakistan to India. The terrain is rugged, Pakistan is politically unstable, and India and Pakistan are not on good terms.
With two of the three cables passing through Suez cut, traffic from the Middle East and India intended for Europe was forced to route eastward, around most of the globe.
The main route goes through Japan and the United States, crossing both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.
So the entire Internet traffic of at least “Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain Pakistan and India” is now running through the US.
Hmmm.