In what may be an indicator of the rapidly evolving political
situation within Libya, Internet traffic in and out of the country
climbed over the weekend. Previously, Internet traffic
volumes had been operating at 60-80% of normal as the Libyan
government reportedly blocked social media and popular video sites
after the start of the popular uprising on February 18th.
While media reports and Twitter updates suggest social media sites
(i.e. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc) are still blocked in Tripoli,
other cities may now have broader Internet connectivity. Twitter
updates (see below) appear to confirm the return of a more open Internet to
eastern Libya.
Most Libya Internet traffic flows through the state telecom (LTT /
AS21003) and then transits out of the country via three main European
/ Asian providers. The AS21003 network likely includes multiple
datacenters and routers in several different Libyan major cities
including Benghazi. More information on the network (including the
hosting business) is available on the LTT web site at http://www.ltt.ly/en/.
The below graph shows traffic based on ATLAS GeoIP statistics across
sixty or more ISPs around the world. A graph of traffic through
AS21003 exhibits similar trends.
Other data sets, including Google's transparency
report show a similar increase.
On related note, the LA Times ran an interesting piece this weekend on
Libyans smuggling cell phone video to Egypt to upload reports
about the ongoing uprising.
