According to data analytics guru OpenVault, broadband usage during the coronavirus pandemic appears to have plateaued. “It’s too early to say that the industry has weathered the storm of additional usage,” stated OpenVault founder and CEO, Mark Trudeau, “But signs point to the greatest surge of growth by far as being behind us. Operators will need to keep close eyes on any incremental increases – particularly during peak hours and in the upstream – as well as the impact of new quarantines in additional markets, but their networks seem in the meantime to be well-prepared to handle this increased data consumption.”
As the population accesses both work and entertainment media from home during the crisis, as expected, data usage is way up. OpenVault reports a 33.1 percent increase in usage in quarantined markets when compared to its January usage data. However, now that the people are settling in, usage actually dropped by 5.8 percent for the first week in April.
Downstream data consumption is the heaviest during the business day, 42.46 percent higher than numbers recorded during the first month of the year. Upstream traffic logged even higher numbers, with an upsurge of 82.5 percent for the same time period.
Initial research gleaned by OpenVault also indicates that areas that are under shelter-in-place orders are more active than markets that are exercising caution, but have few restrictions. The company will present more in-depth findings at the end of the quarter in the forthcoming Q1 2020 OpenVault Broadband Industry (OVBI) report.
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