Connectivity Infographic

Connectivity in a Crisis

The pandemic tested the limits of our patience—and our home WiFi networks. At the onset of the crisis in the United States in March and April of 2020, millions of people made the transition from their normal nine-to-fives to working, learning, and socializing almost exclusively online.

Remote work and learning explodes

1/5

This shift created new and unprecedented challenges for Communications Service Providers (CSPs), who had to scramble to adjust to this “all online, all the time” consumer experience. And experts predict that some of these trends, like working from home at least a couple of days a week, are here to stay.

Here are just a few hard-hitting stats, illustrating how rapidly and dramatically online activity increased in 2020, as well as what the future of connectivity might have in store.

of the world’s population was under stay-at-home mandates by the end of March 2020

of the U.S. population was impacted at the peak of lockdown

94%

of U.S. employees transitioned to a home office full-time

42%

of workers want to continue working away from the office at least 2 days per week

72%

of employees who had never worked from home before the pandemic plan to continue the practice at least part-time in the future

53%

expected growth of busy-hour internet traffic (37% CAGR) between 2017–2022

Predictions for the future

Requirements for CSPs

Communications Service Providers (CSPs) will need to harness the power of WiFi 6 through intelligent management strategies, including:

Intelligent sensing and prediction of interference, especially in high-density environments

Intelligent ability to steer and hold devices on the appropriate AP

Centralized controls, ideally based in the cloud

Sophisticated, AI-driven channel allocation and bandwidth selection

Only with more intelligent management will WiFi 6 live up to expectation.

Read our whitepaper to learn more about how CSPs can adapt and stay competitive in this changing environment

Download the whitepaper

Sources: 1. “Around 20% of global population under coronavirus lockdown,” The Guardian 2. “An interactive map of the US cities and states still under lockdown — and those that are reopening,” Business Insider Nederland 3. “Stanford research provides a snapshot of a new working-from-home economy,” Stanford News 4. “Unequal access to remote schooling amid COVID-19 threatens to deepen global learning crisis,” UNICEF 5. “The Disparities in Remote Learning Under Coronavirus (in Charts),” Education Week 6. “Sandvine releases COVID-19 Global Internet Phenomena Report,” Sandvine 7. “CORRECTION – Zoom Reports Results for Third Quarter Fiscal Year 2021,” Zoom Video Communications 8. “Cisco Webex Helps Customers Stay Remotely Connected and Reimagine Work,” Cisco 9. “COVID-19: How Cable’s Internet Networks Are Performing,” NCTA 10. “COVID-19 Network Update: May 20, 2020,” Comcast 11. “Cisco Predicts More IP Traffic in the Next Five Years Than in the History of the Internet,” Cisco 12. “COVID-19 Likely to Usher in “Decade of the Home,” According to Accenture Survey Research,” Accenture 13. “It’s time to reimagine where and how work will get done,” PwC

increase in time that home computers were connected to the internet during weekday working hours

~129%

of U.S. K-12 school district leaders were providing online learning opportunities by the end of March 2020

50%

of 127 countries used online learning platforms to educate kids during lockdown

73%

Home bandwidth limits tested

the amount that global internet traffic ballooned in just 2 months of 2020, equivalent to 5+ years’ worth of growth

38%

the growth videoconferencing software company Zoom saw between FY20 and FY21

485%

meeting minutes recorded on virtual conferencing platform Cisco Webex in April 2020

billion

increase in video game downloads

20–80%

increase in streaming and web consumption during the pandemic

20–40%

increase in upstream data between March 1 and Dec. 2020

51.2%

of sampled Plume households saw some kind of cyberattack attempt during lockdown

87%

increase in combined disruption, load, and congestion surges at the start of lockdown

162%

increase in WiFi data usage by mobile devices typically using LTE

36%

Father working on laptop holding baby son at table

Two women on tablet and phone on living room floor

Download the whitepaper