Business Hours Broadband Consumption Soars During Pandemic

The COVID-19 crisis has led to a sharp rise in broadband consumption during business hours, which jumped by 41% in one week. Overall broadband usage in March is on track to outpace the previous monthly record, researchers said. The pandemic has driven a massive uptick in people working from home, relying on broadband networks serving individual homes rather than enterprise networks. OpenVault’s data finds:

• Subscribers’ average usage during the 9 am-to-5 pm daypart rose to 6.3 GB, 41.4% higher than the January figure of 4.4 GB.
• Peak hour (6 pm–11 pm) usage jumped 17.2% from 5.0 GB per subscriber in January to 5.87 GB in March.
• Overall daily usage has soared from 12.19 GB to 15.46 GB, an increase of 26.8%.