Fergie's Tech Blog

Renesys: Georgia Clingin' to The Net

Earl Zmijewski writes on the Renesys Blog:

When you consider the geography of the region, Georgia has few options for connectivity via land routes, namely Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Russia. As it turns out, most of those 309 Georgian prefixes get routed via Turkey's TTnet (AS 9121) or Azerbaijan's Delta Telecom (AS 29049). Traffic to Delta Telecom then heads to Russia via JSC Rostelcom (AS 12389). During the hostilities, we've seen no significant changes in routing. In particular, we saw no apparent attempts to limit traffic via Russia, but then again, most traffic from Georgia seems to currently transit Turkey.

So with respect to connectivity, Georgia is ultimately dependent on either Turkey or Russia, and of course, the Turks have their own problems with the PKK. But Georgia has been planning ahead and just announced the completion of the first stage of a cable to Bulgaria under the Black Sea to give them a direct conduit into Europe. As of today, this fiber does not appear to be lit, as we see no evidence of Georgian traffic routed directly via Europe.

posted by Fergie @ 8/10/2008 09:57:00 PM