‘40% increase in peak traffic on our network’: ACT Fibernet on Covid-19 lockdown impact

It isn’t surprising that broadband providers in India are seeing a huge spike in usage with the 21-day lockdown in force from Wednesday. The stringent measures, in the world’s second-most populous country, were aimed at slowing the spread of the deadly coronavirus (Covid-19).

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With most offices having been shut temporarily, millions of people are working from home and students are attending classes virtually. With many turning to stream platforms like Netflix for content consumption or making themselves busy through social media, experts have raised concerns that a surge in high-definition streaming could put pressure on home broadband networks across the country.

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Gokhale admitted that the company had seen temporary hiccups due to “restrictions placed on the movement of people and materials intercity and intracity”. However, the company has been able to meet those challenges with the support for concerned authorities.

So far the networks are holding up well, however, there is constant pressure to keep them running well as millions are confined to their homes and are turning to their home broadband connection to stay connected.

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Gokhale explains there are three types of challenges the company is facing to keep up the services in the time of coronavirus. One challenge is to ensure that the critical infrastructure is fully operational and enough staff with backup plans to ensure seamless service. The second challenge is that the team deployed in the field has all the necessary protection gear in place so that they continue to provide customer service. The third one is to have all the availability of material and free movement across the cities.

In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, ACT Fibernet recently announced that it will upgrade the speeds of its 1.5 million broadband customers in India to 300Mbps and amends its fair usage policy (FUP) till March 31.