Internet Disruption Report: March 2020

Although Internet disruptions have always been problematic for affected users, March 2020 was arguably the month where they became of ever greater global concern as so many shifted to working and learning from home due to COVID-19 driven lockdowns and shelter-in-place orders. The Internet has become a lifeline, supporting communication with loved ones, enabling online education, and facilitating days full of videoconferencing in place of in-person meetings.

While this blog has never claimed to be exhaustive in its coverage of Internet disruptions, it has endeavored to catalog the various causes of those disruptions, and most months see quite a few documented causes. Interestingly, March only saw documented disruptions due to power outages and cable/fiber issues, with a couple of additional due to possible network issues. (There were, of course, a number of other observed disruptions, but root causes were unable to be identified or confirmed through research or social media outreach.)

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Internet Disruption Report: May 2019

Welcome to the first monthly Internet Disruption Report, covering May 2019. Over the course of the month, we observed Internet disruptions caused by damaged submarine and terrestrial cables, likely issues with satellite connectivity, and problems caused by weather events. In addition, there were also a number of notable disruptions observed during the month with other or unknown root causes.

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