Internet outages occur daily, whether accidental or caused by a deliberate attack. The impact of these outages is proportional to the resilience of the local Internet ecosystem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A resilient Internet connection is one that can maintain an acceptable level of service in the face of faults and challenges to normal operation. These challenges may include sudden changes in Internet traffic, suspicious activity, unexpected outages, and more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Understanding what makes the Internet resilient requires a holistic view of the Internet, not just a technical view. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\u00a0Internet Society\u00a0Pulse Internet Resilience Index<\/a>\u00a0offers one framework\u00a0for\u00a0measuring resilience,\u00a0based on four \u2018pillars\u2019:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Infrastructure<\/strong>: The existence and availability of physical infrastructure that provides Internet connectivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Security<\/strong>: The ability of the network to resist intentional or unintentional disruptions through the adoption of security technologies and best practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Performance<\/strong>: The ability of the network to provide end-users with seamless and reliable access to Internet services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Market Readiness<\/strong>: The ability of the market to self-regulate and provide affordable prices to end-users by maintaining a diverse and competitive market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We also recognize the need to think\u00a0more\u00a0broadly\u00a0and are examining\u00a0environmental<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0social factors<\/a>\u00a0that impact the resilience of the Internet locally and globally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The COVID-19 pandemic underlined the importance of reliable Internet connectivity for everyone. Unfortunately, not all countries have reliable Internet infrastructure to allow their\u00a0workforce and schools to continue working and learning from home<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Low-income countries often have under-provisioned networks. They also often lack robust cable infrastructure and redundant interconnection systems, which provide \u2018backup\u2019 in case one part of a network fails. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In these countries, the likelihood of Internet outages occurring is much higher than elsewhere. With unreliable availability and performance, students, small businesses, and entrepreneurs lose trust and motivation to implement and use the Internet to help grow their communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first step to improving and maintaining a resilient Internet is understanding how resilient it currently is. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The\u00a0Internet Society\u00a0Pulse Internet Resilience Index<\/a>\u00a0offers one standardized, global framework to measure resilience at a country level. Once you\u2019ve identified your weaknesses, you can start to focus on the mechanisms that control them. This could include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Asking your local Internet\u00a0service\u00a0provider (ISP) whether they are implementing current\u00a0best\u00a0practices, such as\u00a0deploying the newest Internet\u00a0protocol<\/a>\u00a0(IPv6) or protecting their routes by\u00a0adopting Resource Public Key Infrastructure<\/a>\u00a0(RPKI).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Recording and reporting Internet performance, outages, or\u00a0shutdowns<\/a>\u00a0to your local news desks, who can further investigate and draw attention to the issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Discussing with your local members of government the policies they are developing (or need to develop) to encourage greater competition and investment in infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Local networks\u00a0interconnecting (peering)<\/a>\u00a0with one another increases\u00a0the redundancy of routes that Internet users can take to access the content they want. It can also increase the speed at which Internet users can send and access content.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The importance of local peering was evident in 2024, when multiple countries in Africa experienced severe interruptions to their international Internet connectivity due to cuts to multiple subsea cables connecting them to servers in Asia, America, and Europe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Internet Society reviewed the impact of cable cuts off the\u00a0West<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0East<\/a>\u00a0coasts of Africa in March and May and found that in both cases, the length of Internet disruptions was considerably shortened thanks to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The quick, collaborative efforts of the African network operators community<\/strong>\u2014see how we\u00a0support local technical communities<\/a>\u00a0who create and defend the Internet in your country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Internet exchange points<\/strong>\u00a0(IXPs), which allowed local traffic and content to continue to be sent and received\u2014learn how we are\u00a0working with communities to expand IXPs globally<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Locally cached content<\/strong>, which in certain countries that had established this, allowed their users to still access historical versions of content\u2014read how we are working to\u00a0keep half of all traffic local in selected economies<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our measurement work relies on our\u00a0global open-data measurement partners<\/a>. Sustaining and broadening these projects is critical for us to fully understand and validate the availability, evolution, and resilience of the Internet at a local, regional, and global level and, in doing so, improve development and policy transparency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Image \u00a9 Nyani Quarmyne<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A resilient Internet connection is one that can maintain an acceptable level of service in the face of faults and challenges to normal operation. Understanding what makes the Internet resilient requires a holistic view of the Internet, not just a technical view.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1798,"featured_media":228926,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32,4893,4898],"tags":[5986,5337],"region_news_regions":[5931],"content_category":[6085],"ppma_author":[5839],"class_list":["post-228891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-internet-access","category-measurement","category-strong-internet","tag-internet-resilience","tag-internet-society-pulse","region_news_regions-global","content_category-blog-type"],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Tower-in-clouds.jpg",1200,550,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Tower-in-clouds-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Tower-in-clouds-450x206.jpg",450,206,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Tower-in-clouds-768x352.jpg",768,352,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Tower-in-clouds-1024x469.jpg",1024,469,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Tower-in-clouds.jpg",1200,550,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Tower-in-clouds.jpg",1200,550,false],"post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Tower-in-clouds-250x115.jpg",250,115,true],"square":["https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Tower-in-clouds-600x550.jpg",600,550,true],"gform-image-choice-sm":["https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Tower-in-clouds.jpg",300,138,false],"gform-image-choice-md":["https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Tower-in-clouds.jpg",400,183,false],"gform-image-choice-lg":["https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Tower-in-clouds.jpg",600,275,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Robert Mitchell","author_link":"https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/author\/rmitchell\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"A resilient Internet connection is one that can maintain an acceptable level of service in the face of faults and challenges to normal operation. Understanding what makes the Internet resilient requires a holistic view of the Internet, not just a technical view.","authors":[{"term_id":5839,"user_id":1798,"is_guest":0,"slug":"rmitchell","display_name":"Robert Mitchell","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Robbie-Mitchell-photo.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Robbie-Mitchell-photo.jpg"},"author_category":"","last_name":"Mitchell","first_name":"Robert","job_title":"","user_url":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1798"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228891"},{"taxonomy":"region_news_regions","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/region_news_regions?post=228891"},{"taxonomy":"content_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content_category?post=228891"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=228891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Why Should People Care About Having a Resilient Internet? What Happens if it Isn\u2019t Resilient?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
What Can People Do to Support a Resilient Internet at a Local, Regional, and\/or Global Level?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
How Does Internet Resilience Affect Outages? And What Is the Internet Society Doing?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Is There Anything Else People Should Know?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
We encourage all governments to consider how they contribute data to these projects and how they measure and make data available about their local Internet ecosystems for their citizens, researchers, and decision makers.\u00a0Explore Internet data on Internet Society Pulse.<\/a><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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