The lockdown and self-isolation measures instituted by our governments during the coronavirus pandemic has got many people working from home. If you are one of those people, you will likely experience slower internet speeds and there is a good explanation for that.
Most people in your neighborhood are probably subscribed to the same internet service provider that you use. Chances are that they are also working from home and the fact that everyone is at home also means that there is more traffic on the same network.
More traffic on the same network especially if it is a shared connection usually affects the speeds at one terminal. This means that a user will likely experience significantly slower internet speeds than they are used to especially now that people are working from home.
Rather than holding physical conferences, people are using video conferencing, sending big files through the internet and while this is not much in the grand scheme of things consider the other users. If you have children or other people in your house, they probably use the same internet service to stream music, movies, TV shows and even games on the same network. Even if this might not be happening in your home, chances are that it is happening with your neighbors.
With the increased internet usage as people remain in closed doors, your ISP’s infrastructure will be put to the test. Chances are that the speeds that you will experience will be notably different and not in a good way. On the other hand, this season will demonstrate just how ready your ISP is prepared to handle additional load on their network.
Most internet-based companies have already reported more traffic on their platforms. For example, Cisco reported that traffic on its videoconferencing platform called WebEx grew by more than 80 percent since the coronavirus pandemic began. Internet traffic in Seattle which is one of the cities that have been heavily affected by the pandemic saw a substantial increase in internet traffic. Things will get interesting further down the road because ISPs will need to adjust their equipment to adjust to the growing demand and perhaps that means faster and more reliable internet in the future.
