Pandemic or Not, 10G is Coming
When the COVID-19 pandemic first forced Americans into their homes beginning in March, millions of people turned to the internet to try to continue any sort of semblance of their lives. America's cable broadband providers were responsible for keeping their networks running at full capacity as internet traffic surged and more people than ever before connected online. Fortunately, the investment in upgrading and building out their networks over the past two decades is paying off during America's time of need, and even as we speak, cable ISPs are focused on the future and bringing 10G to U.S
How Internet Traffic Changed During the Pandemic
It's been three months since NCTA launched the industry's COVID-19 internet dashboard, which tracks cable broadband network performance every week. As America slowly reopens and many people are returning to work sites, after a huge surge in late March, internet traffic has levelled off in the last several weeks. But the tool continues to provide critical snapshots of how broadband is faring for millions of people across all 50 states during this unprecedented time. With no end in sight yet to the pandemic and as Americans learn to navigate the COVID-19 environment, it's worth looking back at
Downstream Traffic Still Dominates Our Lives
With so much of daily life changing in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, one important aspect about internet traffic has remained largely the same—downstream is still the dominant path that data is traveling. While a greater reliance on applications like home video conferencing has focused more attention on the growth in upstream traffic, our time spent at home has resulted in significant dramatic increases in the delivery of video streaming traffic and general data demands, as people turn to the internet with increasing frequency as a source of information and entertainment. People Consuming
New Data Shows How People Are Using the Internet During COVID-19
Since the COVID-19 pandemic stay-at-home measures began in March for much of the country, viewers in the Americas started watching more streaming video, playing more video games, and using social media more, according to a new report by Sandvine. It might not come as a surprise, but the sudden massive shift in traffic from business networks to home networks also saw a sharp rise in video conferencing platforms like Zoom, in both upstream and downstream traffic according to Sandvine. According to the report, the top 10 sources of web traffic in the Americas were either streaming video, gaming
Broadband Performance: A Steady Story of Plateauing Peaks
The digital era has seen many advancements since the dawn of the internet, but never have America's broadband networks shown their mettle as they have during the COVID-19 pandemic. As we've been tracking weekly network performance nationwide, the reports have shown that cable's significant investment in infrastructure and technology upgrades over the last two decades has served consumers well as we increasingly depend on internet access for a wider variety of daily activities. According to the MIT Technology Review, "the covid-19 crisis is driving the biggest expansion in years" when it comes
America's Broadband Leaders Extend Their Connectivity Relief Efforts During COVID-19
Last month, the country's cable broadband leaders came together and made a commitment to help Americans get through this pandemic by signing onto the Keep Americans Connected Pledge. The FCC initiative was started to ensure that Americans and small businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic could continue to access an internet connection. Through this pledge (which extended originally until mid-May), NCTA's broadband members committed to meet the government's pledge by waiving late fees for affected customers, maintaining connectivity irrespective of COVID-19 payment complications, and
Why Cable’s Broadband Network Is Handling the Pandemic and Ready for the Future
With America having shifted to a work-from-home and school-from-home environment for the past several weeks, internet traffic has skyrocketed. This week’s report from our COVID-19 dashboard shows that since March 1 national downstream peak growth is up more than 16% and national upstream peak growth has increased more than 34%, with some regions seeing upstream peak growth approaching a 50% increase. And while peak growth has slowed in recent weeks, the reality is that cable’s broadband networks have seen significant surges in internet traffic growth in just this short period of time. So how
National Peak Broadband Traffic Has Plateaued
The fourth week of data from the cable industry’s COVID-19 Internet Dashboard continues a familiar pattern: national peak broadband growth (both downstream and upstream) has essentially plateaued. This doesn’t mean that we won’t see some variation in peak demand increases (or decreases) from week to week among certain states and regions, but overall the national pattern is consistent and proves that these networks are more than capable of handling the increased demand that we have seen, thanks to years of construction and billions of dollars in private investment in infrastructure and
3Q: A Look into Esports with Turner's Jennifer Dill
Esports has become quite the phenomenon over the past couple of years, and its audience is expected to grow even more as mainstream audiences are introduced to the concept of watching professional gamers compete against each other. And, as the much of the world is now spending the majority of their time at home during COVID-19, many people are turning their time and attention to gaming and esports. As cable’s broadband networks become more robust and bring the 10G speeds of the future, programmers like Turner Sports are providing a platform that's rich and exciting for gamers and casual
Is Peak Broadband Usage Leveling Off?
As we continue to work, learn, live and play from the confines of our homes during the COVID-19 pandemic, NCTA intends to continue reporting on how the cable industry’s broadband networks are performing. Last Tuesday, we unveiled the new COVID-19 Internet Dashboard – aggregated data from cable internet service providers that deliver broadband to tens of millions of homes and businesses – to provide an initial snapshot of what we have seen since early March. We have updated the dashboard again today and will do so weekly. So what trends are we seeing from the broadband performance data? First