Spending time in front of an online series, taking part in a videoconference, or catching up with family and friends over a video aperitif... In the fight against Covid-19, new web habits are developing to such an extent that, in March, Omdia reported a 70% increase in Internet traffic. As a result, there are concerns about the connection: will it hold out for much longer?

The question is justified. According to Arthur Dreyfuss, President of the Fédération Française des Télécoms, all telecoms network operators are seeing an increase in data consumption. At Orange, telecommuting-related traffic (e-mails, file uploads, etc.) has increased sevenfold, and at SFR, Netflix consumption has doubled. Data from streaming platforms show a 12% increase in traffic.

Whether in China, Italy or France, video streaming is on the rise. Witness the Twitch platform, frequented by over 2 million people every day since the beginning of March, compared with an average of 1.16 million in March 2019. Yet video already accounts for three quarters of the data circulating on the Internet.

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A confined reality: networks are saturated

In the magazine Sciences et Avenir, Jean-Luc Vuillemin, Director of Networks, Infrastructure and International Services at Orange, states that the volume of data supported by networks continues to grow. The operator "continues to increase capacity, to draw on reserves, but these are not infinite". Arthur Dreyfuss recalls that at the start of the lockdown, the French phoned two to three times more, causing difficulties on the mobile network.

This is why, in Europe, streaming platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Amazon Prime and Netflix have temporarily limited the standard bitrate of their videos, so that the data consumed by users is less voluminous on the web. On Netflix, video quality has been limited to standard definition rather than HD. And Disney+ has postponed its launch in France to prevent traffic saturation. Still, is it enough to surf the web normally?

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Internet blackout, an unlikely scenario

Not necessarily. At home, it's not uncommon to have to share the connection with family or roommates. This isn't normally a problem, but it becomes one when you need to ensure your presence at an online meeting. Many teleworking employees have already experienced interference during video exchanges. While this often consists only of short cuts in image or sound, it can sometimes completely hinder discussions between telecommuters. The reflex for these remote employees is to switch from the Wi-Fi network to their smartphone network, whether 3G or 4G. Here again, there may be a bit of friction on the line. If too many subscribers confined to their homes use the 3G or 4G network of a single relay antenna, they risk saturating that same network.

For many people, finding themselves confined and without an Internet connection is a worst-case scenario. However, there's no need to fear an Internet blackout. Telecom operators assure us that, even if traffic is on the rise, the web will not collapse in the short or medium term. Nevertheless, the drawbacks of saturation do exist, and to avoid them, companies can help their teleworkers implement certain solutions at home.

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Using a professional router

The router provides a Wi-Fi connection that transmits Internet traffic to devices (computer, smartphone, etc.). In general, ISPs offer a router or "box" of their own manufacture. However, they offer fewer features than those available on the market.

Within the Encore Networks range, the routers have the advantage of integrating 4G cellular modems, as well as a host of other functions: secure Internet exchanges (SSL), virtual private network (VPN), etc. For teleworkers, this means a secure Internet connection for business use only, while reducing the load on the operator-supplied box used by other people living under the same roof.

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Switch to an SD-WAN network

Behind this rather vague acronym lies the term Software-Defined Wide Area Network. Often seen as the third generation of networking, SD-WAN aims to create and facilitate the management of an international network.

Such is the case with Elfiq by Adaptiv Networks intelligent bandwidth management solutions: this mode of operation makes it possible to use all available bandwidth and rebalance traffic between several ISPs. On the enterprise side, bandwidth can be optimized and traffic can be controlled and managed in parallel.

These solutions offer the advantage of managing Internet consumption in a sensible way, which proves to be a necessity in the event of confinement. In the future, this is an option for companies to consider, as many employees see telecommuting not as a temporary or emergency phase, but as a new work culture.

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Article written in collaboration with Allison Blomme

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