Internet Traffic Begins to Bypass the U.S.

[fw at deneb.enyo.de (Florian Weimer)]

* Jean-Fran?ois Mezei:

> Did western europe ever really have a primary route via the USA to reach
> asia  ?

It depends where you buy transit from.  For instance, I see Baidu
through AT&T, and the traffic is routed through the U.S.  Some
Singaporean banks and a few Koran government sites are routed through
Level3, also via the U.S West coast.  For sites in Thailand and Vietnam,
the picture is a bit unclear (no visible IP hop in the U.S.).

On another network, I reach Baidu through Telia, and it's still routed
through the U.S. West coast.

Both networks appear to see IIJ through a peering in San Jose.

Anyway, at times, the more apt question would have been: Is Europe
reachable from Europe without crossing the U.S.?

I can't read the NYT story, but it seems highly unlikely to me that risk
of eavesdropping on behalf of democratically elected governments is a
factor in public Internet routing decisions.