Thursday, March 19, 2020

EU Commissioner Worries about Netflix Impact on Traffic

It is not yet clear whether people staying home from work and school will break the internet, in the sense of causing meaningful congestion, slower speeds and higher application latency. That does not yet seem to be an issue, but at least some voice in Europe believe European Community networks might not be as resilient as networks elsewhere. 

European Union Commissioner Thiery Breton, for example, is urging people to switch to standard definition quality when streaming Netflix. That noted, Cloudflare reports no negative impact on experience, though usage is up in most markets. 

Networks in Spain, though, report large increases in traffic of between 40 percent to 50 percent. 

That noted, higher-speed consumer connections (above 100 Mbps) are most prevalent in North America, compared to Europe, Africa and Latin America. Asia speeds are not too far from North America levels. 

Region
Greater Than 100 Mbps

2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
Global
11%
20%
24%
29%
34%
39%
Asia Pacific
14%
20%
26%
33%
42%
53%
Latin America
1%
1%
1%
1%
2%
2%
North America
16%
23%
31%
37%
40%
46%
Western Europe
10%
13%
15%
17%
19%
22%
Central and Eastern Europe
3%
3%
4%
4%
5%
6%
Middle East and Africa
0%
1%
1%
1%
1%
2%

That might be the source of concern expressed by Commissioner Breton. European networks might be challenged and less resilient in the face of unexpected demand shifts.

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