UP’s mobile internet consumption up during lockdown
LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh’s mobile internet data consumption has gone up since the nationwide lockdown was enforced to check the spread of Covid-19.
Reason: Most activities had gone online and home-confined people were spending more time on their cell phone for various purposes, varying from office work to entertainment.
While private operators’ data was not readily available, stateowned Bharat Sanchar Nigam
Ltd (BSNL) officials said that there was a 10% increase in mobile data consumption among people after the lockdown.
“Mobile internet data usage in UP (East) circle jumped from 150 TB in February to 165 TB in April and the same upward trend continues to be the same in May,” disclosed AK Garg, general manager (mobile).
Describing the increase to be substantial, he said, “An increase of even 1 TB data usage is a big thing.” A month before the lockdown, in February, the data usage in UP (east) was 150
TB, which rose to 152 TB in March, after the lockdown was clamped on March 25. But in April, it rose substantially to 165 TB, and was likely to remain the same or a bit more in May.
The comparison between mobile internet consumption of January and May showed an increase of nearly 29%. The data usage in January was found to be 128 TB, which shot to 150 TB in February, the rise being around 17% in this period.
“The increase in data usage in February was apparently because of the Defense Expo in
Lucknow,” Garg pointed out.
The work from home (WFH) culture, online school classes, online shopping, online gaming, increased use of digital payment, more video calls and video-conferences, enhanced use social media platforms, besides downloading more videos, movies etc by people were understandably responsible for more internet consumption. “During lockdown, people are spending more time on mobile phone for various purposes other than normal calling, all resulting into more internet data usage,” added Garg.