The utilization of the telephony and data networks in Austria has increased due to the corona virus crisis – but there is no threat of overload, both the telecom regulator Klaus Steinmaurer and the providers A1 Telekom, Magenta and Drei reassure. Throttling the capacities for video streaming in favor of other applications would be possible in principle according to the RTR, but is currently not necessary.
Magenta, for example, has registered an increase in Internet use and telephony in its networks since Wednesday. “It can be assumed that this development will continue in the next few days and weeks after more people and families stay at home instead of going to the office or school,” said APA on Monday. But one is prepared for an increase in the use of Internet and telephony and there is sufficient capacity. However, in many companies the VPN settings are not optimized for mobile use and therefore the data throughput is often significantly lower than without VPN. One of the biggest drivers in data consumption is video streaming, especially in the evenings after office hours.
Three: “Network well utilized”
“A lot of calls were made this morning, the Internet was used less,” said a spokeswoman for A1 Telekom Austria on request. At the moment, many people would still try to adapt to the new situation, but both telephone calls and internet surfing are “all right and normal”.
At Hutchison Three, Sunday occupancy was 15 percent higher than regular Sunday occupancy. “The network is currently busy, but the capacity is sufficient.” But there are also other capacities available during the day, because the use usually only increases in the evening.
“Prioritizing teleworking over other applications such as video streaming is only possible in individual cases due to the provisions on network neutrality under very specific circumstances, which are expressly stipulated by law,” said telecom regulator Klaus Steinmaurer on request. However, these regulations would be interpreted very strictly and at the moment it would not be necessary to change the prioritization.
Many providers such as TV counters or Netflix would adjust the quality of their video streams to the bandwidth anyway and create a high resolution even with low bandwidth because they compress the streams. “Bottlenecks can occur for individual company networks, however, if many employees simultaneously log in from outside via VPN (Virtual Private Network). It is up to the company and their service provider to provide the operator with more bandwidth,” says a statement.
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