The loss of Internet connectivity in the southern Caribbean in December 2020, reminded many of us that the region’s Internet is very vulnerable. We discuss the incident, identify a few of the issues, and share some thoughts on a way forward.
In early December, 7 December 2020 to be precise, and if you lived in the southern part of the Eastern Caribbean, you may have experienced a calamitous event. There was either no Internet for most of that day, or the service available was considerably poorer than normal. The countries affected included Dominica, Saint Lucia, Barbados, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana.
For all intents and purposes, it appears that a black swan event had occurred. First, it was reported that a submarine fibre optic cable system that connects many of the islands of the Eastern Caribbean, was damaged somewhere between [UPDATED!] Antigua and Guadeloupe (and not between Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada, in the region of the undersea volcano, Kick’ em Jenny, as was previously stated). Second, another submarine cable, the system, which runs between Trinidad and Tobago and Curaçao, was also reportedly damaged. Finally, there was an island-wide power outage in Curaçao on 7 December, which just made a bad situation worse.
In August 2013, following the failure of the MAYA-1 submarine cable and the adverse impact on the Cayman Islands at the time, we published the article, How vulnerable are the Caribbean’s submarine cables? At the time, our primary focus was the extent to which Caribbean countries had more than one submarine cable system, and thus the some redundancy in the event one cable fails. However, all of the above-stated countries that were affected all have at least two submarine cables systems or landing points, with Trinidad and Tobago having at least four. Nevertheless, nearly seven years later – since the MAYA-1 damage – it seems the region is just as vulnerable.
We thus thought it opportune to revisit the state of the international connectivity in the Caribbean region, in light of the 7 December event, and share the following thoughts.
Can we survive without the Internet?
First, and without a doubt, the Internet is becoming increasingly integral to our lives, and 2020 upped the ante on that front, as we had to rely on the Internet and ICT more than ever, due to COVID-19 pandemic. From about March 2020, telcos reported a huge surge in Internet traffic, between 40% and 60% more traffic on their networks in many instances. More people were working from home, students were engaged in e-learning, and more businesses and organisations were leveraging a broad range of ICT tools, in order to facilitate remote work.
In 2020, poor Internet service is not only frustrating, but can be devastating in multiple ways. Considerable financial and economic losses that can be incurred by both the private and public sectors, along with the almost inevitable loss of productivity that will happen, since more of us are either working online, or are leveraging the Internet to do our work.
Although the 7 December outage lasted just a few hours – as opposed to several days – the impact on business in Trinidad and Tobago in particular was considerable. For example, automated teller machines (ATMs), credit card machines, and to varying degrees, online banking was were not working, which resulted in chaos and loss of revenue for many businesses.
How many submarine cables are enough?
Second, the submarine cable map below, from Telegeography, suggests there is impressive connectivity in the Caribbean region. Most countries have multiple submarine cables landing in their jurisdiction, and so have some degree of redundancy. However, evidenced by what transpired in December, how might we be better able to protect ourselves from such a devastating event?
According to Kurleigh Prescod, the Country Manager/Managing Director at Columbus Communications Trinidad Limited, more redundancy would be better for Trinidad and Tobago, “noting that while there are four connections, only three are capable of supporting the throughput expected in 2020” (Source: TechNewsTT).
Although it could be argued that more (cables) is not always better, because all of those cables would need to be properly managed, coordinated and maintained, Mr Prescod’s view highlights an important point. Some of the submarine cables across the Caribbean region are approaching end of life. Upgrading the equipment at the ends of cables can prolong the utility of the cable systems, but eventually, cables themselves need to be replaced, which according to Mr Prescod, “is not a trivial investment” (Source: TechNewsTT).
For the significant investment required to not only lay new submarine cables, but also to build-out or upgrade the in-country infrastructure to the submarine landing station, a viable business case, demonstrating a reasonable return on investment, is critical. However, the urgency with which the region may need to have more robust connectivity, which is also affordable and universally available, may strengthen the case for more public-private-partnerships (PPP) for such capital-intensive projects.
The use of PPP arrangements is a position the regional telcos have begun advocating, in relation to improving in-country connectivity in some countries where networks still need to be extended to still underserved areas that might not be cost-effective for more comprehensive network deployment. With many Caribbean governments already under considerable economic and financial pressure, they might wish to resist investing in infrastructure and for the telcos to find ways to finance those projects, as they had in the past. However, a growing imperative exists. Across the board, we are becoming increasingly digital, and so cannot afford to not have quality connectivity, generally, and especially when we are looking for new technologies such as 5G to come on stream in the future.
How robust is the Internet in-country?
Finally, if there is anything that we ought to take away from the 7 December failure, is that the Internet has become critical infrastructure for our countries. Further, it ought to be national security consideration, as we need to better manage risk and the exposure of our countries should similar incidents occur in the future. In order to do so, we need to identify resources that are critical for the Internet, and examine the policies we have in place to manage the Internet within our jurisdiction.
To that end, an important consideration is whether all of the traffic that is routed using Internet protocols need to go out of the country. In many Caribbean countries, Internet traffic that originates in-country for a destination in the same country is routed out of the country and then returned. It therefore means that if – for whatever reason – the off-country infrastructure has been compromised, locally destined traffic is also adversely affected. That should not be the case, ought to be urgently addressed.
Parting thoughts
The 7 December failure experienced in the southern Caribbean should provide all countries with the impetus to critically examine the state of the Internet in their jurisdictions. Although more submarine cables, faster transmission speeds, wider availability and improved affordability are also legitimate issues, a connectivity failure outside of the country should not completely cripple the use of the Internet in-country.
Having said this, there are no simple solutions. The issues are all layered, and to varying degrees connected, and are likely to require wholistic consideration, and not a focus on just one issue. Further, and in addition to individual countries tackling the issues, they will need to be address collectively as a region. However, it is unclear whether our countries fully appreciate how vulnerable their Internet connectivity is, and the urgency with which it ought to be addressed.
Image credit: The Sun
