Connectivity across Venezuela drops following new national power outage

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The NetBlocks internet observatory has identified a new widespread power outage across Venezuela starting 11:10 PM UTC (7:10 PM VET) Friday 29 March 2019, cover most states and covering capital Caracas, sending 90% of the country’s telecommunications infrastructure offline.

Most states of Venezuela are now almost totally offline, with only limited mobile connectivity. The latest network data shows availability and power outage impact breakdowns by region:

NetBlocks diffscans, which map the entire IP address space of a country in real time, show internet outages corresponding to power cuts in the region.

Internet outages caused by electricity grid disruptions have a distinct network pattern used by NetBlocks to determine and attribute the root cause of an outage, a process known as attribution which follows detection and classification stages.

Update: 4:25 AM UTC 31 March 2019: Gradual recovery for Venezuela’s power grid following another major outage at 10:50 PM UTC (6:50 PM VET). Network data shows 67% of country currently offline:

Update:  Sunday 31 March 2019: A new power outage has impacted Venezuela as of 13:20 PM UTC (9:20 AM VET). Network data shows only 15% of country now online:

Methodology

NetBlocks diffscans, which map the IP address space of a country in real time, show internet connectivity levels and corresponding outages. Purposeful internet outages may have a distinct network pattern used by NetBlocks to determine and attribute the root cause of an outage, a process known as attribution which follows detection and classification stages.

NetBlocks is an internet monitor working at the intersection of digital rights, cyber-security and internet governance. Independent and non-partisan, NetBlocks strives to deliver a fair and inclusive digital future for all.

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