CenturyLink helps slow video and gaming traffic in Europe during COVID

CenturyLink’s Chief Technology Officer Andrew Dugan said that some European regulators asked two groups of internet content providers to slow down their traffic in response to increased network loads stemming from the COVID-19 crisis. The two groups of content providers are over-the-top (OTT) video companies and gaming companies. EU Industry Chief Thierry Breton had urged streaming platforms including Netflix and YouTube to cooperate with telecom providers and temporarily downgrade the quality of video streaming by offering standard definition rather than high definition video. And Dugan said the Office of Communications (Ofcom) in the UK came out with an official request to parties including CenturyLink. “We received unofficial requests from other regulatory groups,” said Dugan. “We did participate in reducing traffic in Europe.” Dugan said CenturyLink has not received any similar requests from regulators in the US. He said the telecom infrastructure in the US seems to have handled the crisis “a little bit better,” and he attributes that “to the strength of the interconnection” between different network providers who all have similar planning rules for handling crises and surges in traffic.