February 7, 2008... The Internet is not as robust as some think.

The other day it was reported by Wired that "Large swaths of the Middle East and Southeast Asia fell into internet darkness after two major underseas fiber optic links were damaged off Egypt's coast on Wednesday." The likely cause of course is terrorists (of the islamo-fascist variety), but in any case it points out the fragility of much of the world's communications services whose infrastructure is non-redundant and depends upon central servers that can be easily targeted by terrorists (or governmental suppressors of communication).

Skype is perhaps the only exception to this rule. As I wrote in the comment section on another blog today, "Compared to other communications carriers, Skype, with its point-to-point structures and dynamic supernodes does not have an infrastructure that can be damaged by these "events" (newspeak for attacks from the enemy that we're afraid to identify). It is another reason why Skype will become the irrepressible communications channel that everyone will depend upon. Quasi-skype services like iScoot, by contrast, are identifiable targets."

This does not mean that redundant "multi-homed" Internet structures are the final answer to the problem. Communications that rely upon the Internet are sometimes frustratingly fragile in the "last mile" of connectivity as they reach the choke points of delivery.