Internet consumption shoots up as people are staying at home
Infrastructure of telecom and internet service providers has started to clog as consumption of data in the last few weeks has grown at a level as cities are locked down. The hike has been witnessed by operators over a period of two years. Just within the last two weeks, internet service providers have seen a 40 percent increase in traffic on their networks, with the numbers inflating on a daily basis.
This has led to telecom players reaching out to video streaming platforms like Amazon Prime, Netflix, and Hotstar to rationalise their services to ease the pressure on telecom networks. COAI said in a letter to the video streaming platforms, “This sudden surge in digital use is already putting pressure on the network infrastructure of the Telecom Service Providers (TSPs). The TSPs are taking requisite steps to manage this load and facilitate the smooth functioning of the networks during this critical time. We understand that there are various measures that the streaming platform companies can undertake in this present situation to continue to provide a suitable level of service to their customers at the most appropriate bitrate required, one such measure being temporarily moving to SD (Standard Definition) rather than HD (High Definition) streaming.”
Responding to the telecom companies, streaming platforms including Amazon Prime and Hotstar have begun to optimise their bitrates to have them in line with the strained telecom networks. In addition to video streaming platforms, work from home policies adopted by corporates have led internet traffic to rise to unprecedented levels as evident from the information made available by internet exchanges of India.
Telecom operators, including state-owned BSNL and MTNL and private company Reliance Jio have offered free data packs to their fixed broadband customers to support work from home.
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