Summary
NATO has been warned of potential global internet blackouts amid a surge in suspected Russian sabotage of subsea fibre optic cables.
Telecom giants like Vodafone, Telefonica, and Orange urged UK, EU, and NATO officials to classify the undersea cable network as critical infrastructure.
Since October 2023, at least 11 cables have been damaged in the Baltic Sea, with over 50 Russian vessels spotted nearby. The UK is monitoring the Russian spy ship Yantar.
Officials also raised concerns about Chinese activity near Taiwan and called for increased surveillance and international cooperation.
Where are you getting that from? If this were a real constraint, Ukrainian systems would be a joke, as would those on Starship, planes, boats, etc. The low orbital infrastructure is specifically to ensure high throughput. Some offloading is logical in some circumstances, but not as a constraint.
Mmm - seems there is some satellite->satellite routing in addition to the ground stations. It does degrade latency though.