What if the US shut down the Internet like Egypt did?

For Americans addicted to Facebook and Google, a day without the Internet might seem to last forever, now the effect of going offline would be no less traumatic for the entire U.S. economy, experts say.

While the economy probably could reverse the damage from being offline a few days, every day without the Internet would be a step closer to calamity for manufacturing, finance and other sectors of the economy.

Such would be the consequence if the United States ever followed the example of Egypt, which shut off its Internet Jan. 27 in an attempt to silence widespread protests. A bill introduced in the Senate last summer proposed giving the U.S. president an Internet kill-switch for use in times of emergency.

Bank using digital communications

"A bank using digital communications and storage, or an automobile company using the Internet for supply and factory automation - everything that's large that relies on connectivity would get dramatically hit," said Alexander Pasik, chief information officer of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

Practically every U.S. business relies directly or indirectly upon the Net for interactions with clients and suppliers.

Complete shutdown for long

"I just can't conceive of a complete shutdown for long, because it would paralyze the economy," said Andrew Odlyzko, a mathematician at the University of Minnesota who studies Internet economics.

Yet the impact might not be catastrophic. Experts said the U.S. economy could probably make up much of the losses if the Internet shutdown were restricted to a few days.

The United States

E-commerce alone is worth about $8 billion per day in the United States, according to a 2010 report by the Information Innovation and Research Foundation. Such Internet activities as well account for an estimated $10 trillion globally each year.

But the possible impact of an Internet shutdown goes far beyond the obvious problems if anyone wanted to buy or sell on Amazon or eBay. The broader U.S. economy has grown intertwined with Internet-based services over the past decade, according to Andrew Whinston, director of the Center for Technology in Electronic Commerce at the University of Texas in Austin.

Supply chain that includes suppliers

That means any company could run into trouble along a supply chain that includes suppliers, manufacturers and retailers, as so then as the delivery or shipping services that connect them - all because so much of daily business-to-business interaction has gone online. That's like as not most exemplified by the trend of cloud computing.

"Operating companies are heavily dependent on networking research, and especially the companies that are part of the supply chain," Whinston said.

The wheels of finance

The wheels of finance and banking as well could grind to a halt if an event compelled all U.S. Internet Service Providers to cut off all Internet access. A shutdown of the stock markets, where billions of dollars are exchanged daily, might prove especially crippling, Whinston recommended.

But Odlyzko recommended that a directed shutdown of public Internet access could however leave in place certain networks connecting stock markets and banks - as long as the event was not due to cyberattacks that as well targeted those closed networks, or to other uncontrollable forces.

Much of the economic pain from an Internet shutdown might be only temporary. To illustrate, many people who were unable to access Amazon or eBay for a few days probably would for all that end up making their purchases once Internet connections were restored.

The impact on the U.S.

"During the impact on the U.S. economy would be substantial, it would likely be less than the daily average, because many e-transactions would be postponed, not eliminated," said Scott Andes, a innovation analyst at the Information Innovation and Technology Foundation.

Perhaps the most heartening lesson from that incident was the lack of panic or chaos, according to Pasik of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. And that was a full power outage that affected many services beyond Internet access.