Sandvine releases COVID-19 Global Internet Phenomena Report

Unique insights on the significant changes in consumer broadband usage during the worldwide stay-at-home order and how it is affecting networks

 San Jose, Calif., 7 May, 2020 – Sandvine, a leading provider of network intelligence solutions, has announced the release of a special COVID-19 Global Internet Phenomena Report. This report analyzes how traffic on consumer broadband networks has undergone a massive change as consumers are primarily using their fixed-line home networks for their internet access. This edition of the Phenomena Report provides a unique view of internet traffic. The worldwide stay-at-home order has concentrated the vast majority of internet traffic on a single network, enabling authoritative answers to the question of what applications are truly driving consumer satisfaction and where network operators should focus their efforts for quality of experience (QoE) investments.

Commenting on the report, Lyn Cantor, President and CEO at Sandvine, said: “The COVID-19 worldwide pandemic has drastically affected network usage around the world, with many operators experiencing 100% growth in traffic volume as usage shifts from enterprise and education networks to primarily consumer broadband networks. Sandvine’s goal is to ensure that network operators can continue to deliver high-quality internet services that consumers depend on during these times, and this report is our contribution to the network industry during these times of change.”

The Global Internet Phenomena Report is the authoritative view on how applications are consuming the world’s internet bandwidth. With an installed base of over 2.5B subscribers worldwide across over 500 fixed, mobile, WiFi, and satellite operators, Sandvine’s visibility into internet trends is unparalleled in the industry. This edition of the report reports on total volume of traffic for thousands of distinct applications, content providers, and internet protocols that are the core intellectual property of Sandvine’s network intelligence solutions. The report highlights the changes in network traffic mix during the COVID-19 pandemic, and helps network operators understand why the traffic patterns are changing and how they can adapt their services to accommodate the new normal. Network operators struggling to cope with these changes that lack granular visibility into how these changes will affect their subscribers’ QoE will gain tremendous insights into what the new normal may be on their networks going forward. Network operators that are looking for assistance in keeping QoE high during high usage can contact Sandvine for more details on this report at phenomena@sandvine.com.

Some highlights from this edition of the report include:

• Traffic grew almost 40% globally from 1 February to 19 April  
• YouTube is the undisputed king of internet traffic, with over 15% of all traffic on consumer broadband networks
• Netflix is over 11% of the total volume of traffic, in second place behind YouTube
• Video, Gaming, and Social Sharing categories comprise over 80% of all internet traffic, highlighting their importance to consumers as lifelines for entertainment during the shutdown
• All four of the major paid OTT video streaming services are in the Top 10 in the Americas: Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, and Disney+, marking the first time that has happened in a Phenomena Report
• The report includes spotlights on the traffic share leaders for video, social networking, messaging, and gaming during the COVID-19 pandemic

These highlights and more will be shared in the full report, which is available now. Live webinars will be given at 10 a.m. EDT and 9 p.m. EDT to discuss the report, and replays will be available after the live event.

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MEDIA CONTACT

Cam Cullen
Sandvine
+1 510 228 4302
ccullen@sandvine.com