Down can have many definitions, all pose fun and interesting engineering and/or social hacks to get the data through.
There is the Iran/China blockaded behind a wall, other places where the bandwidth is super low or unreliable, and of course natural disasters or social disorder which break physical data transmission infrastructure. I like to play with all of them because it is way more interesting to try to say compute an overpass and shoot the space station and leave a message on the BBS than it is to click a 'Download Now' link.
Like expensive mechanical watches I suppose it is complication for complications own sake.