- Traffic - 10% less data during applause
Data traffic, with unprecedented peaks during confinement, has monopolized the leading role of telecommunications during this health crisis, but the networks have had to readjust to face another unexpected difficulty: the rebound in telephone conversations of the Spanish, concerned for their loved ones and toiling to fulfill their tasks through telework.
"In recent years, voice has been a declining service, not like data, so it has not been among the investment priorities of our sector," they acknowledge EL MUNDO from one operator.
At noon, many customers have been unable to connect to the mobile network of the call receiver. The reason is the congestion of the interconnections between the operators, saturation that has never occurred for such a long period. "It is the same phenomenon that takes place at Christmas, " says another professional in the sector.
With the same networks as always, a volume of calls is clearly being supported above the usual registers. The rush hour is located between 12.00 and 13.00 , in calls that the specialists consulted attribute to the rise of teleworking. In the late afternoon, although without reaching the noon levels, there is another sharp rise, between 7:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. , conversations that are estimated to be linked to those of family and friends.
When a call is made, each operator's smart network detects whether the intended recipient is part of another company's customer base. Telecommunications companies maintain interconnection nodes with their competitors to solve this. There is always a default route, but it may be saturated, as has been the case during confinement. Therefore, there are overflow options, points that can exceed one hundred for each operator. If these possibilities are equally congested, the networks of the incumbent of the market, Telefónica, are used, which allows its infrastructure for fixed telephony to be used for mobile calls .
Call volume is such that such complex design has proven insufficient, a problem that companies have been remedying in the past few weeks. Interconnections used to an occupation of between 50% and 70% have exceeded 100% on more than a few occasions.
Just yesterday, Vodafone released a consumer study for this week. Last Monday, voice traffic was 13% higher than that of March 9, the last Monday before the state of alarm. There is already a certain settlement: with respect to day 9, on March 16, an average rise of 36% was recorded in mobile voice and 134% in the fixed category.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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