alt Hacker News"Going through" doesn't necessarily imply store and forward. It could be tapped elsewhere and shipped to WVA. fwiw the idea of running a network in order to tap it is hardly new. The British operated largest telegraph network in the world in the 1800's for that reason.
You think there's an entire shadow infrastructure across the United States or world that carries 80% of all internet traffic all the way to VA?
It would have to be several times larger than the internet infrastructure itself due to the distances involved.
All built and maintained in secret?