Containment, which has become the norm for at least 15 days, raises fears of network overload for telecom operators. YouTube or even Netflix could be cut.
- Internet connections increased by 20 to 30% in Italy after confinement
- In France, operators call for “digital responsibility” to avoid saturation
- Access to entertainment platforms may be limited
Parents teleworking, children deprived of school, everyone connects to the family network, raising fears of saturation. Ricochet effect of the coronavirus, the overload of the networks could become a reality if the uses become uncontrollable. Access to certain connections, such as YouTube or Netflix, may be prohibited. In Italy, connections have increased by 20 to 30% since the beginning of the confinement of the population.
Sites already saturated
The home connection is done on the Internet network, while in business, part of the traffic is done on private networks, explaining a potential overload. The situation being unprecedented, all the options are on the table for the telecoms which do not elude any hypothesis. Joined by franceinfoArthur Dreyfuss, president of the French Telecoms Federation, calls for a “digital responsibility” to avoid saturation of the networks and having to “prioritize” certain uses.
From Monday March 16, even before the announcement of national confinement decreed by Emmanuel Macron, the first sites did not support the overflow of connections. This was the case for the Ile-de-France site, iledefrance.fr, or even Klassroom, an online course service, as noted Le Figaro. For drive-thru races, Carrefour’s online site also did not support the massive influx, and many others are very much slowed down.
Connect to wifi network
To anticipate the massive increase in internet connection, Arthur Dreyfuss assures that “more than 15,000 technicians and engineers from all telecom operators are mobilized to keep the networks going, not just for the next few days, but for the next few weeks, even the next few months.” Among the simple actions to adopt to avoid an extreme situation, he recommends connecting all his devices to the wifi network “to telephone, to work, to communicate, to get information” since the fixed network has a greater capacity than the mobile networks.
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