Measuring South Africa’s Internet in the Dark: What Blackouts Do to Its Internet Infrastructure

What is it about?

This work shows how South Africa’s frequent electricity outages affect Internet performance and connectivity by correlating end-user performance measurements, amateur radio activity, and BGP routing data with records of both planned and unplanned outages. This study provides a deeper insight into the resilience of the Internet in South Africa.

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Photo by Andrey Metelev on Unsplash

Photo by Andrey Metelev on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Understanding how power outages affect internet is crucial for a country like South Africa, which is regional connectivity hub. While other studies around South Africa focus on social and economic consequences, which are well recognised, this study focuses on a different perspective, one that is less visible: the impact of electricity outages on internet connectivity, end-user performance, and amateur radio activity. Not all types of power outages affect the Internet in the same way. This paper examines how planned and unplanned outages affect various datasets, demonstrating that their effect on Internet performance, routing data, and radio activity vary significantly.