Broadband Network Industry at a Crossroads Due to COVID-19
Published2020.06.23 12:16Downstream 50Mb/s, upstream speed 15Mb/s required
As countries around the world implemented lockdown measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19, fixed broadband networks took on the role of connecting the entire world.
Increased by 30~40% [Photo = Nokia Blog]
According to Nokia's survey on global network usage following COVID-19, worldwide network traffic increased by approximately 30–40% after lockdown measures. This is attributed to the increase in remote work, online education, and entertainment usage.
Comparing data from countries around the world before and immediately after lockdown measures, fixed broadband traffic increased by approximately 30–60%, fixed voice traffic increased by 50–130%, and calls using Wi-Fi increased by 70–80%.
While traffic has increased, it has been revealed that nearly one billion households worldwide remain excluded from fixed broadband connections. For households living cut off from the outside world without the internet amidst lockdown measures, access to potentially life-saving information is impossible. Furthermore, they are inevitably excluded from information regarding family health and education.
Given that COVID-19 will continue to have a lasting impact on global society until a vaccine is developed, there are calls for such marginalized households to be given priority consideration. However, simply connecting to the internet cannot be considered a proper measure.
According to an analysis using Nokia's bandwidth modeling tool, it was found that a minimum downstream speed of 50 Mb/s and a minimum upstream speed of 15 Mb/s must be maintained to comfortably work, study, and enjoy entertainment during lockdown measures. These figures represent the minimum level required for disconnected individuals to remain connected to society and online.
Nokia’s CTO Stefaan Vanhastel advised, “Telecom operators must now actively consider not only the transition to NG-PON FTTH technology to address the surge in upstream bandwidth, but also 100G aggregation links and terabit switching capacity.”
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