Leading European operators, including Movistar, Orange, Vodafone, Grupo Masmovil and Grupo Euskaltel, are asking the public to adopt a rational and responsible approach to the use of telecommunication networks due to the massive spike in traffic during the COVID-19 crisis.
Telefónica said traffic through IP networks has experienced increases of nearly 40% while mobile use has increased by about 50% in voice and 25% in data. Likewise, traffic from instant messaging tools such as Whatsapp has increased fivefold in recent days.
The operators issued the following public requests:
- Only download the documents or files that you really need, and if they can wait, do it at night or in the “off-peak hours” with less traffic (between two and four in the afternoon and between eight in the evening and eight in the morning).
- Whenever possible, do not send heavy files -videos, presentations…-. Send links or routes to where they are stored. And, if it is essential to send them, compress them first or give them a format that weighs less (from ppt to pdf, for example).
- Use collaboration tools like Teams or Slack, and if you can, don’t always do it with video.
- Avoid massive e-mails.
- Use your landline phone instead of your mobile phone to make calls when possible.
- And, above all, optimise the traffic for what you really need: email, remote work, conferences, school and education applications, access to information… reserve leisure tools, video games, streaming, live video playback for the off-peak hours.
