Cloudflare has released the data and insights on the Internet Disruptions that were observed across their network in Q2 2024. The report intends to provide an overview of observed disruptions and is not an exhaustive or complete list of issues that have occurred during the quarter. Some of the notable findings are:
In Nepal, a number of local Internet service providers including AS45650 (Vianet) and AS139922 (Dishhome) rely on Indian provider Bharti Airtel for upstream connectivity, enabling them to reach the rest of the Internet. A published report underscores the reliance, noting “Nepali ISPs buy 70 percent of their internet from Airtel.”
Dishhome may not have experienced a near-complete outage like Vianet did because Bharti Airtel is one of four upstream providers used by its parent company, whereas Bharti Airtel is one of Vianet’s two upstream providers.
With an estimated subscriber base in excess of over 460 million, any Internet disruption affecting Reliance Jio’s network (AS55836) is going to have a widespread impact across India. On June 18, Reliance Jio experienced two disruptions that occurred between 13:15 – 17:15 local time (07:45 – 11:45 UTC). Each disruption lasted less than an hour, and dropped traffic levels to approximately half of those seen at the same time a week prior. Both mobile and fiber connectivity was affected, and no additional information has been provided by Reliance Jio regarding the root cause of the connectivity issues.
SpaceX Starlink’s satellite Internet service is unique in that it has an international subscriber base, so outages on its network have a more wide-reaching impact than issues with an ISP that covers a single country. At 01:59 UTC on May 29, Starlink shared on X that it was currently experiencing a network outage, and that it was actively implementing a solution.
Cloudflare’s network spans more than 320 cities in over 120 countries, where we interconnect with over 13,000 network providers in order to provide a broad range of services to millions of customers.
Concerns over a potential Internet shutdown during planned protests against tax increases proposed in “Finance Bill 2024” by the Kenyan government led to the publication of a joint statement signed by multiple organizations.
During the two-plus years of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Ukraine’s power grid has been a frequent target for Russian air attacks. When damage to Ukraine’s electrical power infrastructure occurs as a result of these attacks, Internet connectivity is also disrupted.
Cable cuts, both terrestrial and submarine, caused Internet outages across a number of countries, with the ACE submarine cable being a particular source of problems.
The magnitude of the initial impact varied by country, with traffic initially dropping by 10-25% in Kenya, Uganda, Madagascar, and Mozambique, while traffic in Rwanda, Malawi, and Tanzania dropped by one-third or more than compared to the previous week.
A reported “network interruption” on the Africa Coast to Europe (ACE) submarine cable disrupted traffic across networks in the Gambia, Mauritania, and Senegal on June 5.
A nationwide power outage in Ecuador on June 19 impacted hospitals, homes, and the subway, in addition to causing a major disruption to Internet connectivity.