Internet connectivity in 2025 has shown frequent and visible outages in several regions. A comprehensive new report highlights some of the biggest challenges in 2025.
Traffic data collected by cloud flare More than 180 major disturbances were recorded during the year, with the most recent quarter reflecting trends previously observed as unusual anomalies.
Cloudflare noted that these incidents affected both development and advanced networks and challenged assumptions about redundancy and resilience.
Electrical systems are a critical weak point
Records from the end of 2025 show that everyday infrastructure weaknesses continue to outweigh extraordinary causes.
Power outages have repeatedly caused sudden drops in Internet availability, such as a transmission line failure in the Dominican Republic that turned into a national blackout and reduced Internet traffic by about half for extended periods.
In Kenya, instability of the regional power link with Uganda resulted in limited connectivity, the impact of which lasted for hours outside major cities, and in Ukraine, drone attacks damaged power facilities near Odessa, causing local outages and continued traffic disruptions during repairs.
These events demonstrated that Internet access remains closely linked to fragile electrical infrastructure.
Extreme weather conditions have exacerbated existing vulnerabilities in several regions. Hurricane Melissa hit Jamaica in late October 2025, immediately halving internet traffic and paralyzing it for days due to infrastructure damage.
Cyclone Senyar caused flooding and landslides in parts of Sri Lanka and Indonesia and caused traffic losses of almost 95% outside major urban centres.
Fiber optic cuts have increased tensions, as repeated damage to international cables disrupted operations in Haiti, Pakistan, Cameroon and neighboring countries.
Incidents like this demonstrate how physical stress continues to impact global connectivity. However, not all disruptions are due to external shocks or environmental damage.
Network operators experienced outages due to internal technical failures, including routing disables and DNS outages.
Providers in the United Kingdom, Italy, Israel and Indonesia experienced service outages that left users completely unaware, despite the integrity of the underlying networks.
Large cloud platforms have also experienced incidents that reduced application availability in different regions, showing how centralized dependencies can increase local outages.
Government-ordered lockdowns remained limited during this period, with Tanzania being the most prominent example of election-related unrest.
Most outages were due to routine operational issues rather than intentional limitations. Real-time monitoring helped document these outages, although transparency from operators remained inconsistent.
Events at the end of 2025 suggest that Internet reliability will continue to depend more on core physical systems than on advanced network design.
Decades of investment have not eliminated foreseeable opportunities for error, and the persistence of these weaknesses raises questions about whether existing approaches are sufficient.
