Streaming Video Downshifting Data to Cut COVID-19 Network Congestion

Streaming video providers are slowing video transmissions to free up bandwidth when U.S. ISP networks are jammed, we heard this and last week. More content providers likely dialed back their HD video quality during the pandemic, said Streaming Video Alliance Executive Director Jason Thibeault. An FCC official doesn't anticipate requesting streaming video operators throttle bit rates like Europe has (see 2003240032). For our past report about increasing demand on networks, see here. (It's in front of our pay wall, like other coronavirus coverage). Google said that after last month defaulting all YouTube videos to SD to ensure maximum bandwidth availability in Europe for 30 days, it expanded that action globally. It said users can manually adjust quality. It has seen changes in usage patterns from more people at home, expanding across additional hours. Netflix didn't comment Tuesday. By March 31, average home monthly usage in the U.S. was around 400 GB, up around 20% from the end of 2019, said OpenVault CEO Mark Trudeau. Extrapolations point to this month ending with 450-460 GB, or a year's worth of usage growth in a few weeks, he said: Most gains are in the daytime hours, which had ample headroom. Sandvine told us some outlier networks worldwide flatlined, needing no further extra capacity. It said edge providers have reduced their part in congestion, with Sony's PlayStation and Microsoft's Xbox cutting speeds. Traffic on fixed broadband infrastructure networks is up 20-100%, it said. The biggest jump was in daytime hours; while peak used to be evening to midnight, it now starts at around 10 a.m. and goes daylong. There have been some consumer complaints and data that slows in some areas and network performance has suffered at certain times. "End-user uplink speeds are being detrimentally impacted," emailed Penn State X-Lab Director Sascha Meinrath. He said the FCC definition of broadband as 25/3 Mbps is "severely asymmetrical." Upstream data use is up heavily due to HD telepresence, so heavier Netflix use isn't a challenge, but "it's the Zoom classrooms and meetings (and soon, telehealth diagnostics) that are going to cause major headaches," he said. Increased buffering might not reflect so much network congestion as the speeds subscribers signed up for, said OpenVault's Trudeau: With everyone home, "they need a bigger pipe going into their house."