After all, quarantine is a good reason to stay at home, where thanks to the Internet you can do everything: watch movies, download video games, even work and follow school lessons. All comfortably, with the usual wifi. But is it really so? The reality is that, as some of us have already begun to see (Tim network down last week and internet connections going down more frequently than expected), the network is overloading e it is not certain that it can resist guaranteeing the level of performance to which we are accustomed.
This is because Italy has been at home for at least a week and data traffic in this period of time has jumped by 90% on the fixed network and also 35% on the mobile network (Vodafone speaks of a +50% in the markets most affected by the pandemic), Tim recorded a +75% flow on streaming services only in the last weekend (even if the company has specified that “there shouldn't be a problem) and the number of video viewers on Facebook (on which, for example, the Pope holds a daily mass in Live) e Instagram.
“We are even beyond New Year's levels”, specified one who knows enough about online streams, Mark Zuckerberg. “Normally for us it's peak traffic and New Year's Eve. Practically everyone at the same time wants to send a message to everyone and snap a selfie to send to your family wherever they are. Today in some countries like yours we are well beyond that peak”. The theme for a few days is no longer just about Italy. Half the world and above all all of Europe are in quarantine, which is why Brussels is closely monitoring the situation.
“Teleworking and streaming help a lot, but could put pressure on infrastructure,” said European Commissioner Thierry Breton, who has already spoken by phone with Reed Hastings, head of Netflix, to reduce congestion on heavily overloaded internet networks. That's why to «allow access to all, it's time for #SwitchToStandard, that is switch to a lower definition video when hd is not needed”. Netflix immediately announced that it will reduce the bitrate for 30 days to limit the impact of traffic on European networks by 25%.
Idem YouTube, which temporarily suspended high-definition streaming lowering the quality to the standard level to lighten the load of data traveling on the Internet. The announcement came directly from Google, owner of the social network for the diffusion of videos. Necessary caution given that yet another streaming platform will debut in days, the highly anticipated Disney + which in Italy will also be visible on Sky. Here, the debut is set for March 24, but in order to avoid further data traffic peaks, some countries such as France have asked the US giant to postpone it. For now without receiving an answer.
