Global Internet Grows 174%.

International Internet bandwidth grew 174 percent between 2000 and 2001, according to Washington, DC-based research group TeleGeography, Inc. Though strong, the overall rate of growth has slowed from last year, when cross-border Internet links increased by 382 percent.

The Internet’s global topology is growing in uneven spurts, however. In the past year, for example, Latin America’s international connectivity grew by almost 480 percent to 16.1 Gbps. This growth came largely as a result of new submarine cable systems built by Telefonica (NYSE: TEF) and Global Crossing (NYSE: GX). Internet backbone providers purchased capacity on these systems in larger quantities and at lower prices than previously available.

This sporadic growth has also led to a more diffused map of Internet connections. Although the United States still plays a central role in Internet infrastructure, most countries have become less dependent on the U.S. as a switching station. But the U.S. remains the world’s main hub — as of mid-2001, over 80 percent of international Internet capacity in Asia, Africa, and South America still connected directly to a U.S. city.

These statistics are derived from research published in Packet Geography 2002, a new report from TeleGeography. TeleGeography has tracked the development of international network topology and traffic flows since 1989, and Packet Geography is its first book-length study of the Internet’s infrastructure.