Prime Time

With much of the country stuck at home, residential internet networks are coming under significant pressure. The New York Times reported last week that broadband speeds had fallen nearly 5% from the week earlier. In New York, the drop was 24%, the Times reported. But Comcast -- the nation's largest residential broadband provider -- says it's up for the challenge.

The company's president of technology and product, Tony Werner, told reporters today that its network wasn't seeing slowdowns, despite significant spikes in usage. The company's confidence is not that surprising, and it's surely part of a well-timed public relations campaign. Even so, I was fascinated by the usage figures Comcast provided on the call, which my colleague Eric Savitz joined. 

Here are the key stats from Eric's story:

·        Overall peak traffic is up 32% from before the onset of the virus, with peak traffic up as much as 60% in some markets, including Seattle, San Francisco, and Chicago.

·        In both Seattle and San Francisco, among the first cities with stay-at-home orders, traffic is plateauing.

·        Comcast said video conferencing and voice over IP traffic is up 212%, with VPN traffic up 40%.

·        Gaming downloads have spiked 50% to 80%.

·        Streaming video is up 38%, while linear video consumption is up four hours a week on average per household to 64 hours.

·        Video on demand is up 25% year over year.

·        The company has seen a 10% drop in LTE network data, while WiFi data on mobile devices is up 24%

Finally, social distancing and work from-home orders are changing the meaning of prime time.  From Eric:

Werner noted that peak traffic times have shifted post-virus. Peak download times occur earlier in the evening, around 7:30 p.m. now from 9 p.m. before March 1, possibly reflecting the absence of commuting as most people work from home. Werner also said the typical prime-time spike isn’t longer, but instead is shifting earlier. Meanwhile, peak data upload has shifted to work hours, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., from 9 p.m. previously.