ISPs Saw a 30% Increase in Traffic During the Pandemic, 40% During Peak Business Hours

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ISPs Saw a 30% Increase in Traffic During the Pandemic, 40% During Peak Business Hours

By CircleID Reporter
April 08, 2021, 7:07 pm PDT Views: 16,263 Add Comment

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Percentage Increase in VPN Traffic (a US ISP) – The notable drop-off on weekend use makes it pretty clear that this traffic is due to work/learn-from-home activity. (Source: NETSCOUT)

ISPs in the U.S. saw a significant surge in both downstream and upstream traffic, increasing at least 30% and as much as 40% during peak business hours and as much as 60% in some markets, according to a new report from the Broadband Internet Technical Advisory Group (BITAG). “Overall, the available data suggests that the Internet has performed well during the pandemic, and continues to do so, despite unparalleled and rapid changes in traffic demands. Although individual end-users may have experienced isolated issues, we found no data or reports that suggest that the Internet did not perform to meet the needs of the end-users (e.g., slow page loads, excessive video buffering, video conferencing sessions aborting, etc.).”

More highlights from the report:

— “The observed increase in traffic volume was not simply a consequence of a shift from organizational networks to residential ones. The shift caused local information resources on organizational sites to become remote ones, accessible only through the Internet. Therefore, net Internet traffic increased.”

— “Video conferencing traffic, while representative of a small overall percentage of traffic, increased substantially. Some networks saw more than 300% increase in the amount of video conferencing traffic from February to October 2020.”

By CircleID Reporter — CircleID’s internal staff reporting on news tips and developing stories. Do you have information the professional Internet community should be aware of? Contact us.
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