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One thing that is clear in all areas of our daily lives is that we are facing an unusual situation due to the coronavirus. Our habits and customs have changed with the confinement and a good proof of this is that WhatsApp and other apps have boosted the traffic of the networks.
The measures taken by the authorities of many countries, including Spain, have caused the volumes of Internet traffic to rise to much higher figures than is normal on these dates in any other year.
Messaging, social networks and streaming
According to a Nokia study, traffic during day one of the confinement as far as WhatsApp is concerned,increased between 117-217% , rising on the first Sunday of the quarantine up to 6 times more than normal, both in said messaging application and on social networks.
Entertainment applications have also risen considerably. Netflix, for example, has increased by up to 97% more in the evening time slot and between 27-47% in the afternoons. This means that we put on Netflix a lot more since we got up, a time that before was not very significant in terms of traffic volume.
As soon as the weekend arrived, the traffic on Netflix continued to increase between 57-75%, which shows that not only those who cannot work or telework were at home, but also those who they do work outside the home during the week, they were also on lockdown at the weekend.
In what is the general traffic of the network, it increased between 50% and 70% on the first day of quarantine. And when the first weekend arrived, specifically the first Sunday of quarantine, the increase was between 34% and 97% depending on the time of day.
This was a test for the entire network, verifying that the networks could absorb all that traffic flow without losing the quality estimated in each of the cases.
If something is becoming clear these days, it is that the network is responding well in general, although all operators should be very attentive to the development of events, because this situation could last longer than initially expected.
It must be taken into account that there are very large countries where decisions as drastic as those suffered by Spain have not yet been taken and if it were to come to that, all in charge of managing global networks should take measures so that the only means of interpersonal communication we have right now, along with traditional mobile calls, does not break down and cause problems for people.
The fact that the network failed would be fatal not only on an economic level, since many companies right now have a lot or all of their activity on the Internet, but on a human level it would also be devastating, since the closest means of communication that we can afford right now are video calls and they are definitively dependent on the Internet.
That is why it is good news that networks worldwide are enduring in this way the enormous traffic flows that are taking place, but they also mark us that those who have the power must be Be very attentive to possible eventualities that this situation may cause.
It is true that we are going to overcome this pandemic together, but it is also true that the networks are and will be a part essential for us to reach a successful port, with as good a quality of life as possible in a situation like this.
