Massive spike in broadband usage
RESEARCH BY local broadband provider Whizzy Internet shows an astonishing 82 per cent increase in broadband internet usage in the north Wexford area per household in recent times.
The reason for the surge, which was identified by comparing internet usage from April 2019 and April 2020, is being put down to the Covid-19 pandemic, as more people work and study from home as well as enjoy home entertainment.
‘The average data usage per household in north County Wexford in April 2019 was 224 gigabytes across the month while in April 2020, this shot up to 408 gigabytes per household,’ said James O’Sullivan of Whizzy Internet. ‘The busiest time for broadband usage is still between 6 p.m. and 11 p.m.’
‘Before the coronavirus lockdown, Friday nights were ten percent busier but all nights are equally busy now. At peak times, Netflix is still the most popular use of broadband at over 27 per cent.
‘Netflix estimates that we use one gigabyte per hour to download standard definition movies, and three gigabytes to per hour for a high definition movie. If we look at the 408 gigabytes per month, this would equate to 204 two-hour movies for the month per family home by standard definition, or seven a day or 136 movies in the month per household in high definition. That is 4.5 movies per day, still not to be sniffed at’.
James said that more bandwidth is likely to be used for video conferencing and other work and study applications being used by both adults and children at the moment.
The team at Whizzy Internet has been continually upgrading the network so that it is able to cope with the additional demand. But the business took a decision not to take on any new mobile or holiday home connections in an effort to help deter the movement of people during the lockdown and so risking the spread of the coronavirus.
The team said that, as restrictions are lifted, this policy will be reviewed. ‘We are very grateful to every member of our team here who have continued to work hard to keep our customers connected when they needed it most. We are grateful to our customers too for their support. Remember it’s important to take breaks from screens and get outside as often as you can,’ said James.