Social distancing is the weapon of choice when it comes to preventing the spread of the SARS-CoV pandemic. And as most activities move inside, the demand for good internet connectivity has increased all over the world. Now more than ever, people rely on their online activity to work, learn or entertain themselves.
This surge has already put immense pressure on networks everywhere, but new rules demand that they function at the highest possible levels. As more and more people will continue to work from home, network traffic will also continue to rise. But are networks designed to cope with the rising demand, or will Internet users have to face new limitations?
How Are Businesses Coping?
As living rooms become the new offices, it’s no wonder that some of the biggest traffic spikes are reported by service providers for the WFH industry. For example, the traffic volume for Cisco’s Webex collaboration service is up 24 times above its normal range during peak hours. Similarly, Microsoft announced that its Microsoft Teams has seen a 775% increase in usage among its Italian users. In the US, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued a temporary waiver of regulatory fees to encourage traffic to such communications platforms.
While it’s ‘adapt or die’ in the business world, the same can be said about network service providers (NSPs) as they face bandwidth and security concerns. Some of them are trying to rise to the occasion and meet the rising demand, others are urging users to avoid peak times to ease volume. One thing’s for certain: they are all gearing up for the future and trying to anticipate how it will be shaped by the present pandemic.
Will Good Services Be Enough?
A study released by VPN vendor Atlas shows a direct connection between the rising number of SARS-CoV cases and a surge in VPN usage from the same region. VPN usage has continued to grow steadily in most countries since the beginning of the pandemic and has been attributed to the increasing number of cases. More than 53% of Americans are already using VPN more frequently than ever before.
In Italy, the number of new cases and victims witnessed a sharp increase in early March. Atlas showed that VPN usage has also increased across the country at the same time. One of the reasons for the surge is the fact that Italian companies supported remote work along with VPN use for data security reasons.
But in times of crisis, good services are not enough and providers need to be prepared for the unexpected. Prior to the pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) ranked Italy’s healthcare system as the second-best in the world, yet their hospitals and medical personnel have quickly become overwhelmed by the sheer number of cases. If there’s any lesson to be learned from this example, is that changes are needed even for the best of services. That means rethinking national budgets, medical services, and materials, along with technologies. As the SARS-CoV pandemic is reshaping the world as we know it, the Internet makes no exception.
How Will NSPs Adapt?
“It’s kind of unusual to face a national crisis and ask our employees to go home. But that’s effectively what we’ve done,” AT&T’s CEO Randall Stephenson told CNN. When talking about the needs of the medical professionals, Stephenson mentioned that AT&T is the provider of the First Responder Network Authority, connecting all first responders in the country.
“In a time like this, of national crisis, this network is tested for the first time and it’s actually performing quite well,” Stephenson said.
But when it comes to the Internet infrastructure as a whole, he said that mobile volumes are up by 40% due to the crisis, while Wi-Fi calling is up by 100%. Even though the network is doing “quite well,” Stephenson said that AT&T is seeing some signs of stress. If SARS-CoV managed to test the limits of the second-best healthcare systems in the world, could it also test the limits of our networks when we need them the most?
Verizon also noticed a surge in data usage following the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. However, just like AT&T, the company provided a rather optimistic take on the matter. “Verizon’s networks are designed and built to meet future demand and are ready should demand increase or usage patterns change significantly. While this is an unprecedented situation, we know things are changing, and we are ready to adjust network resources as we better understand any shifts in demand,” Verizon announced. The company also said it will increase capital spending in order to speed up the transition to 5G and better support the economy during the crisis.
Final Thoughts
The SARS-CoV pandemic may change the world as we know it even in its digital aspects, but US network providers seem to be ready to face these new challenges. However, that doesn’t mean that US citizens shouldn’t take measures on their own. One thing all users can do while working from home is to avoid connecting with multiple devices at the same time. After all, if the new coronavirus taught us anything, it is that simple preventive measures sometimes work the best.
