May 28, 2020 | posted by Conner Williams
With the implementation of Oregon’s “Stay Home” order near the end of March, many people are at home to help slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. As such, we have seen a drastic increase in Internet traffic from our members that are working from home, taking care of kids, finding ways to stay entertained online, and much more. It can be easy to overlook how many aspects of our lives require a reliable Internet connection, more than accessing email, streaming movies, and playing multiplayer games. School districts and teachers work hard to continue to educate our kids, families and individuals use telehealth services to connect with their doctors and healthcare providers, local businesses continue to serve their communities through work-from-home initiatives, and so much more.
During a traffic study period between March 20 and April 30, there was a 20% increase in Internet traffic during work hours, a 14% increase in the evenings, and an 8% peak time increase, which is around 9:00PM in our area. The traffic increase during peak times in our area was nearly double the increase in traffic nationwide, according to a study by the National Cable Television Association.
We've seen a 30% increase in traffic on our dedicated server designed to manage usage of a popular streaming TV service. 503.651.1210 We've taken steps to streamline the deliverability of certain popular entertainment services so that our members receive the utmost quality product without lag or interruptions. Finally, we saw a 16% increase in total minutes watched on EZVideo, our app-based TV program that uses members’ DirectLink Internet connection to enable live, replay, and recorded shows and movies.
Justin Radke - Senior Network Engineer
"What we have experienced here is certainly nothing we have seen before on our broadband networks, but thankfully we have been able to scale our infrastructure to support the demand for our members,” said DirectLink Senior Network Engineer Justin Radke.
Despite the increase in traffic, DirectLink remains committed to our members and does not implement data caps or fees for high usage. 503.266.9885 Our members can feel confident in the advanced infrastructure we’ve put in place to reliably handle calls on a traditional telephone to family members and loved ones, connect with coworkers over a video conference call, and enjoy a variety of online entertainment options.
"We are always anticipating constant growth and we are doing our best to stay ahead of the demand to provide the best experience for our subscribers," said Radke. "We'll keep doing our jobs so that our community can do theirs from home."
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