- Pandemic.Coronavirus, last minute
The network base that Spain has, which could be an opportunity for the definitive digitization of the country, is today a guarantee for the challenge of supporting communications during the confinement forced by the Covid-19 coronavirus . Last Saturday night, data traffic peaked, but telecommunications operators have an unprecedented fiber deployment in Europe and that is only surpassed by that of Japan and South Korea.
Traffic through IP networks has already experienced increases of close to 40%, according to operators, such as Telefónica, Orange and Vodafone, in a joint statement issued this Sunday, the day before teleworking has become massive, given the measures of the state of emergency decreed by the Government. An increase of 50% in the use of voice and 25% in that of data show the unprecedented scenario facing the country's communications. Instant messaging tools, led by WhatsApp, have multiplied their data by five in recent days.
In the fourth quarter of 2019, 7.9% of all employed people teleworked, just over 1.5 million professionals, a record high that has skyrocketed in recent weeks, awaiting conclusive counts. To the employment and education in remote modes are added the increase in consumption, video games and streaming views that require connections robust enough to support it.
The operators want to be "cautious" and "cautious", as they admit to EL MUNDO, that is why they have launched a series of advice to citizens for a "rational use of the networks": download the strictly necessary documents, resort to off-peak hours of traffic, avoid both mass emails and the unnecessary transmission of heavy files, choose tools such as Teams or Slacks instead of video connections, use the landline whenever possible and, above all, prioritize what is really important to move the leisure at those hours of low traffic, between 2:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m., as well as the strip that runs from 00:00 to 08:00 in the morning.
Is Spain ready?
The Spanish network is privileged. Copper or ADSL has lost ground and fiber optics has prevailed throughout the territory, with Telefónica at the forefront, so that practically 80% of the territory is covered by this technology, even the home, with ultra broadband. "This does not have any other country in Europe", José María Álvarez-Pallete explained in the last presentation of results of Telefónica, the main operator in the country: "There is more fiber deployed in Spain than in the sum of the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany , France and Portugal together, "recalled the company's CEO regarding the national network.
That operator, without going any further, offers its customers 600 Mb per second symmetric (up and down), since 2018. Ten years earlier, in an early period that dates back to 2008, speeds were limited to just 30 Gb.
From the operators it is believed that this Monday begins "the great simulation of teleworking in Spain", according to an operator, since much of the country has to resort to this type of professional performance. However, telephones are not so concerned about the upcoming collapse as the sustainability over time of this scenario, which is currently supporting the barrage of connections.
Data traffic has been growing in recent times and last week reached record figures. DE-CIX, the leading internet exchange point operator, broke a world record last Tuesday. In Spain, the peak would be on Saturday, March 14, at exactly 8:36 p.m. , with a figure of 468.39 Gb per second, as explained by that company to this newspaper.
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