During the COVID-19 pandemic you might have noticed your internet speeds lagging behind your normal internet experience. This is largely due to the change in normal internet usage as students and parents work from home, using up greater amounts of bandwidth.

An Introduction To Telecom Networks

In normal circumstances there is a pattern to internet usage that large Internet Service Providers (ISP) build their networks around. During the day internet usage at businesses, schools, and colleges are high, while residential usage is low. When everyone goes home for the day this usage pattern is flipped, with business internet usage being very low, while residential usage is higher. Large ISPs know this and have built their networks around this pattern of usage to balance their business and residential usage on the same network. This creates a dependency on the normal usage model to keep their networks working normally.

What Happens When Normal Usage is Disrupted

When normal usage is disrupted this can cause issues for large ISPs. In the case of a pandemic like COVID-19, when a large portion of the workforce suddenly has to work from home, coupled with children and college students having online classes the normal usage of networks is disrupted in a major way.

When working from home a large number of people need to access their office networks to enable them to get their work done. They do this by using a VPN to access their business’ network. When workers do this, they essentially double dip into the ISP’s network utilizing access from their home, and their business. This results in slower speeds for end users as the network gets overwhelmed by the amount of data usage. This is because the ISP’s networks were not built out with the idea for both business and residential usage to be high at the same time.

In the case of a pandemic, people are not just working from home. Many people are unable to work at all during a pandemic, so they are streaming using video platforms like Netflix, or playing online video games, both of which use a lot of data. This adds to the normal usage because these users wouldn’t normally be accessing the network during the day.

When suddenly all at once students are doing schoolwork remotely, there is a significant increase in bandwidth usage during the day adding to the strain on large ISP networks. Many times, learning from home involves video chat which takes up a significant amount of bandwidth. This is especially bad when you consider how many students are doing it all at the same time when all schools K-12, community colleges and universities are turning to online classes at the same time. This results in a huge increase in bandwidth usage. All of these things add up to a lot of trouble for large ISPs who have a shared network with their residential and business customers.

The Benefit of a Dedicated Business ISP

A dedicated business ISP is largely unaffected by a shift in normal usage. As a dedicated business ISP, One Ring Networks does not have to mix a large number of residential customers on the same network. This helps One Ring Networks ensure your business will have the speeds you pay for regardless of how normal usage is disrupted.

Who We Are

One Ring Networks is an industry-leading provider of voice and data services across Arizona, California, Georgia, Maryland and Texas. We offer hosted PBX, fixed wireless, fiber and unified communications solutions to businesses of all sizes. To find out more about our customizable options please contact 1-855-ONE-RING or email our team at sales@oneringnetworks.com