We already knew that the internet had become, for some time, something essential to the modern world. But I don't think we've ever really experienced the importance of the web for the functioning of our routines.
This notion became clear after many people locked themselves at home, following recommendations of social distancing to avoid contagion from the new coronavirus. And in isolation, everyone had to work remotely, study online and chat with friends and family through screens. The number of simultaneous accesses may be the highest ever recorded in history, which affected the speed of the network.
But can the internet stop during a pandemic?
The impact was significant especially in countries with more cases of the disease. In Italy, for example, internet traffic has risen 40%. While before, usage was concentrated in companies and during business hours, now people surf through VPNs, hold video meetings and search data, all from home. Streaming, which was already among the biggest internet consumers, has also grown. With so many people indoors, Netflix, Amazon Prime and other platforms have become a necessity even for those who weren't in the habit of logging on.
And as demand rises, the tendency is for connection speeds to drop and what we call latency, which is the response time of the internet, to increase. When this happens, what needs to be adjusted is not the packages with franchises or higher speeds, but the infrastructure. If no adjustment is made to the demand and to the number of people accessing at the same time, browsing will remain slow.
Here in Brazil, operators have been increasing the speed of customers in order to ease any kind of problem. However, expanding the connection will not help if the infrastructure cannot support the high demand that is coming in the coming weeks.
There have been governments that have asked streaming companies to reduce the quality of the videos generated. In some countries, 4K quality has been disabled. Google, Netflix and Facebook were some of the giants that adopted the measure. In Brazil, the reduction in image quality was announced by Netflix, affecting all subscribers in national territory. Technically, there was a reduction in the bitrate used during the transmission. Netflix itself reported that the kind of rationing was positive since the platform's networks were at risk of overload.
So with consumption exploding, is it possible that the internet will collapse?
The answer is no.
We are talking about an interconnected network, extremely resilient and therefore with great capacity to maintain operating levels in the face of anomalies such as operational overload or configuration problems. For a better understanding, this means that if tomorrow a war destroyed entire countries, the internet would continue to function.
Alongside this, there are expansion projects underway that will enable the network to reach, literally, every corner of the planet. This year, SpaceX, Elon Musk's company, put the Starlink project into practice. It consists of the creation of a network of small satellites that, when in operation, will be able to expand the internet even to isolated communities. Since January, 300 satellites have been launched into space.
Technology has been key to generating productivity in the current scenario of constraints. As the pandemic seems to test the capacity of the internet, it opens up space for initiatives that will transform, for the better, the future of the web. Even if we have speed reductions, it will continue to expand. And, for now, it is not a virus that will be able to change that.