Supporting Our Customers as the Demands for Bandwidth Increase

Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s safe to say that the way we as a society do business and live our daily lives has been disrupted. Suddenly we are finding ourselves more reliant on our home broadband connections than ever before to stay connected in a world where we need to be “disconnected” from each other due to social distancing and shelter-in-place directives. Bandwidth demands are greater than ever before.

Within a short amount of time, companies have made historic shifts to telework, putting millions of employees in a work-from-home situation for the first time and relying on a variety of online tools to keep businesses operating remotely. Meanwhile, with schools across the globe cancelled for the remainder of the school year, students on every grade level are relying on internet connections to continue their education with online programs, recorded lessons and live streaming with teachers. With everything from sports event cancellations to local restaurant closures, consumers are seeking out live streaming services, such as Netflix, for entertainment on a greater level than ever before.

Pressures on the Network

Collectively these bandwidth demands are undoubtedly putting pressure on the very networks that consumers are relying on to continue their daily lives. The NCTA – the Internet & Television Association compiles weekly data from some of the largest internet service providers in the country and reports that the national upstream peak growth since March 1 is 33 percent, while the national downstream peak growth rate is 18 percent – and these numbers continue to grow week-to-week as more shelter-in-place directives are put in place. Verizon has offered more specific details in an announcement in March – noting a 34 percent surge in virtual private network (VPN) usage week-over-week. Network operators are responding by working night and day to monitor demands on their fiber wireline and wireless networks, and quickly troubleshooting issues to ensure maximum robustness and reliability.  

But even before current events, telecom networks were feeling pressure to keep up with a surge in demand to support new applications such as 5G, IoT, AI and more. We’ve hit an inflection point when it comes to bandwidth demand – moving forward, telco, MSO, service provider and enterprise networks alike will need to stretch further than ever before.

Supporting Our Customers

During this critical time, Precision OT is open for business and our engineering team is available to offer full remote, secure support to new and current customers. It is more important than ever to maintain a reliable network – remember our team’s support is only a phone call or an email away. Reach out to us at (585) 500-4090 or sales@precisionot.com.