COVID-19 Drives Up Business Broadband Consumption

Business hours broadband consumption has risen by more than 41% and overall usage in March is on track to outpace the previous monthly record as the country adjusts to life with the COVID-19 coronavirus, according to OpenVault, a provider of technology solutions and industry analytics for broadband operators.

One week after the CDC declaration of the virus as a pandemic, OpenVault data confirms the following:

• Subscribers’ average usage during the 9 a.m.-5 p.m. daypart has risen to 6.3 GB, 41.4% higher than the January figure of 4.4 GB.
• During the same period, peak hours (6-11 p.m.) usage has risen 17.2% from 5.0 GB per subscriber in January to 5.87 GB in March.
• Overall daily usage has grown from 12.19 GB to 15.46 GB, an increase of 26.8%.

Based on the current rate of growth, OpenVault projects that consumption for March will reach nearly 400 GB per subscriber, an increase of almost 11% over the previous monthly record of 361 GB, established in January of this year.

In addition, OpenVault projects a new coronavirus-influenced run rate of 460 GB per subscriber per month going forward. OpenVault’s research is based on the actual usage of more than one million broadband subscribers through the United States.

“Broadband clearly is keeping the hearts of business, education and entertainment beating during this crisis,” said Mark Trudeau, CEO and founder of OpenVault. “Networks built for peak-hours consumption so far are easily handling the rise in nine-to-five business-hours usage. We’ve had concerns about peak hours consumption given the increase in streaming entertainment and the trend toward temporary cessation of bandwidth caps, but operator networks seem to be handling the additional traffic without impacting customer experiences.”