Broadband networks prove their mettle in pandemic challenge

The Covid-19 lockdowns were expected to push the resilience of broadband and mobile networks to the limit. With millions of people suddenly working from home, it was widely expected that telecoms companies would struggle to keep everyone connected, particularly in countries where full-fibre broadband levels are low and 5G upgrades remain a distant prospect. Yet networks mostly held firm as minor outages and service difficulties such as jerky Zoom calls proved surmountable for most workers, children and furloughed staff stuck at home. That was despite a boom in the amount of data traffic as gaming, streaming and video calls clogged the digital highways. Britain’s BT reported record amounts of traffic on its broadband network during the latest lockdown.