Internet traffic jumps 10-20% as more people work, study from home; fewer glitches than in circuit breaker

• Telcos told TODAY that they had taken initiatives such as boosting their network capacity
• Some internet users said that they did not experience any disruptions at all as more people stay home 
• Others said that while there were some hiccups, they paled in comparison to the major outages last year

SINGAPORE — Since the tightened Covid-19 safety measures kicked in last Sunday (May 16), internet traffic has jumped 10 to 20 per cent, three internet service and broadband providers here said.

Despite this, the providers told TODAY that they had taken initiatives such as boosting their network capacity, and could handle the surge well during this period when more people stay home to work and schools conduct e-learning.

Some internet users who spoke to TODAY said that while they encountered some hiccups such as slow connections, this typically did not last more than a few hours. The connectivity is far better than it was during the circuit breaker last year.

During the circuit breaker in April and May last year when most social and economic activities were halted, tens of thousands of subscribers with telecommunications companies StarHub and M1 experienced service disruptions.

The Government said in May last year that the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) and the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) would work with telcos to boost their network capacity.

In September, IMDA fined StarHub S$210,000 and M1 S$400,000 for the disruptions.

M1 said that over the past week, it had observed a 10 per cent increase in its peak traffic, while StarHub said that it had seen a 10 to 12 per cent rise in home broadband traffic over its network. 

ViewQwest said that since the new heightened measures kicked in at the start of this week it has observed a 20 per cent increase in residential broadband traffic and correspondingly a 20 per cent decrease in enterprise broadband traffic compared to the previous week.

Singtel meanwhile said it had also seen an increase in user traffic but did not give figures.

Working from home is the default arrangement from May 16 to June 13 as cases of coronavirus infections multiply.

TEACHERS NOTICED A DIFFERENCE

Most people interviewed by TODAY who are working remotely said that internet connectivity had improved greatly from last year's circuit breaker period.

One primary school teacher, who declined to be named because he is not authorised to speak to the media, said that during home-based learning last year, there were severe lags when he used online conferencing tool Zoom.

“The platform was lagging badly, it was very slow, and some students had problems logging in,” the StarHub subscriber who is in his 40s said.

One year on, there are no such problems. With home-based learning having started again on Wednesday, he had managed to log in early to the Student Learning Space (SLS) portal and avoided any issues on the platform, and his class went smoothly.

“If the telcos had expected this issue, and ramped up their capacity, then it’s a good thing,” he added.

This was the same for one secondary school teacher who also declined to be named. The 28-year-old who subscribes to Singtel said that while Zoom was often lagging for him last year, the internet connectivity issues were all but resolved this time round.

The SLS portal was giving some teachers issues on the first day of home-based learning, but he said that he used a different teaching portal and had no difficulties.

“It wasn’t an internet issue, it was an SLS issue,” he added.

PATCHY CONNECTION 

Minor hiccups occurred for some online users such as Ms Nina D’Costa, 23. Her work has been disrupted by a patchy internet connection since Monday.

The StarHub user, who works as an analyst at an advisory firm, said that she experienced slower internet as well as a Wi-Fi signal that constantly disconnected.

“When I’m on calls, it is quite frustrating when the connection keeps dipping in and out, and this slows down my workflow.”

One M1 user, who wanted to be known only as Alvin, said that his internet service was disrupted briefly on Monday, but was fixed within an hour when he restarted his router after reaching out to the telco for remote assistance.

“They replied quickly on Facebook and it worked again after one hour, so it was not too bad,” the 30-year-old IT consultant said.

This disruption paled in comparison to the same period last year, when he recalled the internet failing on him on two separate occasions for about two hours at a time.

StarHub customer Kenneth Teng faced a similar disruption for about half a day on Tuesday, when he had trouble accessing the internet for his work. He had to use a personal hot spot through his mobile phone to log into work systems and make conference calls.

By the evening, the issue was resolved and the internet connection was back to normal.

“The outage during the circuit breaker was much worse,” the 47-year-old project manager at a manufacturing firm recalled.

“This time round, at least I'm prepared and know how to find an alternative solution to have internet connectivity.”

WHAT TELCOS SAY

M1, StarHub and ViewQwest said that they had worked with the authorities to modernise their network and expand their network capacities.

M1 said that its network capacity expansion was completed last year and that its engineers will “remain vigilant and monitor the network capacity closely to maintain high availability during periods of heavy usage”.

“We will take guidance from and work closely with MCI and IMDA to strengthen network resilience and enhance connectivity for all,” it added.

StarHub said that the increase in user traffic has had no impact on the quality of service to customers. 

“Having worked with the authorities to expand our network capacity in 2020, we are well-prepared for surges in traffic volume and are constantly monitoring network performance with the readiness to roll out enhancements where necessary.”