BEREC - Summary Report on the status of internet capacity, regulatory and other measures in light of the Covid-19 crisis (29/05/2020)

Stampa

In a joint statement with the European Commission, on 19 March 2020, on how network operators can cope with the increased demand of network capacity, BEREC committed to a special reporting mechanism to ensure regular monitoring of the Internet traffic situation in each Member State, in order to be able to respond swiftly to capacity issues. Furthermore, BEREC is collecting information on other measures implemented by National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) as well as on other initiatives by public and private parties throughout Europe. This report focuses on, and summarises, the main updates of an ongoing, weekly information gathering exercise, and includes the most recent data provided to BEREC by its constituent NRAs as of 26 May 2020. 32[1] NRAs shared their data about the impact of the crisis on electronic communications networks and the actions taken so far in their respective Member States. Please refer to the previous iterations of this summary report for further details on some of the early measures applied by NRAs during the crisis. The summary report will continue to be updated based on regular input from NRAs, with the next summary report due to be published on 5 June 2020.

  1. Status of internet capacity

In general, traffic on fixed and mobile networks increased during the Covid-19 crisis, but no major congestion issues occurred. 5 NRAs[2] have provided updates on the status of internet capacity in their Member State since the previous information gathering exercise (19 May 2020). Please refer to previous iterations of the internet capacity summary report for further details on some of the early measures applied by NRAs during the crisis.

Key updates since previous report

and mobile networks;

In general, three phases in the evolution of internet traffic have been observed during the crisis: sharp increase, stabilisation and a decrease from the peak. The following updates on the status of internet traffic have been reported: BG has reported that fixed and mobile data traffic remained stable with a good quality of service. Additionally, interconnection traffic dropped compared to the previous week. CY has reported that data traffic on both fixed and mobile networks slightly decreased in the week of 11-17 May 2020 compared to the week of 4-10 May 2020. IT has registered a stabilisation for fixed data traffic intensity and a slight increase for data traffic volume in the week of 11-17 May 2020 compared to the week of 4-10 May 2020. As regards mobile data traffic, a slight increase has been reported for the same period. PL has registered that most of the operators’ traffic flow either remained stable or decreased during the last week when compared to the week before.

NRAs are monitoring the situation and are regularly collecting data from ISPs and other market players about the status of their networks. FR has reduced the frequency of reporting from ISPs to once a week.

No updates have been provided since the previous reporting period.

No updates have been communicated since the previous reporting period.

  1. Other measures taken by NRAs, public institutions and market players

Key updates since previous report

BEREC has asked NRAs if there are any tracing applications/solutions in place in their Member State in order to monitor the spread of Covid-19. Information provided to BEREC as of 12 May and 19 May is available in the previous iterations of this summary report (BoR (20) 89[3]; BoR (20) 90[4]). In BG, the NRA reported the availability of an application "VirusSafe" related to the monitoring of the spread of Covid-19, where individuals can input data and report their health status on a daily basis. New information on the issue of tracing applications/solutions, as of 26 May, has been provided to BEREC by ES. ES has reported that in addition to the previously reported actions a pilot tracing app will be launched in the Canary region by next June.

ES reported that from 1 June the DVB-T2 transition will resume in “phase II” areas, where the health indicators allow for more relaxed social distance measures.

ES reported that on 26 May, the Government issued a new Royal decree-law (19/2020) repealing the suspension of fixed and mobile number portability.

 

[1] The following NRAs have contributed so far to the information gathering exercises: AL, AT, BE, BG, CH, CY, CZ,

DE, DK, EE, EL, ES, FI, FR, HR, HU, IE, IT, LT, LU, LV, ME, MT, NL, NO, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SI, SK.

[2] 2 NRAs from the following Member States having provided updates since the previous data gathering exercise:

BG, CY, FR, IT, PL.

[3] https://berec.europa.eu/eng/document_register/subject_matter/berec/reports/9260-berec-summary-report-on-the-status-of-internet-capacity-regulatory-and-other-measures-in-light-of-the-covid-19-crisis

[4] https://berec.europa.eu/eng/document_register/subject_matter/berec/reports/9261-berec-summary-report-onthe-status-of-internet-capacity-regulatory-and-other-measures-in-light-of-the-covid-19-crisis