Industry Response
With bandwidth demand and usage changing, companies are responding to the new environment. And many more are considering the social and business implications of a potentially permanent increase in remote work.
Keep scrolling for more news on what is being done to address the massive changes we're seeing in network traffic worldwide.
COVID-19 Slowing Network Operator CAPEX, Warns Ciena
Optical giant Ciena warned that service providers are slowing down spending on their network due to the pandemic and that the situation won't improve for several more quarters.
GCX and E-marine Conclude Repairs of Submarine Cable System Falcon During Pandemic
Global Cloud Xchange and their partner E-marine completed repairs of GCX’s submarine cable system in the United Arab Emirates while presented with unprecedented challenges and restrictions caused by the COVID-19 global pandemic.
COVID-19 Hasn't Infected Operators' Capex Plans
The global pandemic has upended almost all aspects of daily life – except when it comes to network operators' capital expenditures. That, according to a wide range of network equipment vendors focusing on a variety of markets and technologies, has remained relatively unaffected.
Telstra Announces Plans to Build Up its Network Infrastructure in the U.S.
The addition of 1.5 terabytes of capacity on multiple subsea cables from U.S. West Coast to Asia-Pacific is a direct result of increased demand from Telstra’s U.S.-based customers and partners needing to carry data, content, and IP to and from Asia, especially as the world continues, in large part, to be affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rapid Service Turn-up Despite COVID-19
A client request to add 100Gbps to their existing 200Gbps capacity on the west coast of Africa allowed WIOCC to continue rapid delivery despite the restrictions imposed by COVID-19.
Liberty Global: No Need to Alter Network Upgrade Plans in the Face of COVID-19
"Liberty Global might consider making some minor changes or tweaking its upgrade plans on a targeted, case-by-case basis should portions of the network see higher than normal congestion."
NBN Connections Pass 7 Million as Network Capacity Jumps
The connections were made as available NBN bandwidth per user jumped by 31% during the March quarter, following NBN Co’s boost of the network capacity in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ubisoft Releasing New Content and Updates Outside Peak Hours
Ubisoft is also changing the auto-patching window for all PC games played via Uplay from four to one month.
Vodacom to Spend Over R500 Million Within Two Months to Add Network Capacity
Vodacom South Africa expects network traffic to increase after it implemented price cuts of up to 40% on its 30-day data bundles and launched free access to certain websites, including health sites and e-school platforms.
Google to Reduce Nest Camera Quality to Ease Strain on Broadband Networks
If you’re in the US and your Nest’s camera quality and bandwidth settings are higher than the default, Google will be rolling those settings back.
Innovations That Prepared the Internet for COVID-19
Without the shift from private networks to internet everywhere, the option to work or learn outside of a traditional physical location would be less available and less secure.
Aqua Comms Turns Up 200G of Trans Atlantic Capacity
In a LinkedIn update, the team reported that, "Last week, Aqua Comms turned up 200G of Trans Atlantic capacity to support the urgent network requirements of one of our customers. Our Ops and Engineering teams worked tirelessly to ensure go live took less than 72 hours."
Steam Manages Bandwidth
"For games that haven’t been played recently, Steam has been scheduling updates for the next off-peak local time period. Beginning this week, we are now spreading these updates out over several more days. Only games played within the last 3 days will be updated immediately."
EU: No Major Internet Congestion Issues Have Occurred Since COVID-19 Onset
BEREC, the European Union's telecommunication regulation agency, said today that no major internet congestion issues have occurred since the onset of the coronavirus crisis.
ZDNet | March 30, 2020
Comcast Details What Coronavirus Has Done to Network Traffic
Tony Werner, Comcast president of technology, said in a press briefing that the company normally adds capacity 12-18 months ahead of time, with typical plans targeting 45% a year increases in traffic.
Venture Beat | March 30, 2020
Keeping Our Network Infrastructure Strong Amid COVID-19
More teleworking means more cloud. It means more Gmail and more search and more YouTube.
It’s fair to wonder whether the Google network can handle the load. Their team says they can.
Google | March 26, 2020
Google Scraps Newest Version of Chrome
“As we adapt our future milestone schedules to the current change in schedule, we have decided to skip the M82 release to ensure we keep users safe and focus all efforts on maintaining stability,” says Jason Kersey, Director of technical program management at Google.
IT News Africa | March 24, 2020
Netflix Reduces Traffic, Where Needed
Netflix has tested and deployed a way to reduce traffic on networks by 25%, starting with Italy and Spain.
Amazon and Apple Are Reducing Streaming Quality to Lessen Broadband Strain in Europe
Following in the footsteps of Netflix and YouTube, Amazon has announced that it will also reduce streaming quality in Europe in order to lessen the strain being put on broadband networks.
The Verge | March 20, 2020
Other Stories
Managing Steam Bandwidth During COVID-19 Pandemic
How Zoom, Netflix, and Dropbox are Staying Online During the Pandemic