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Covid19 impact on internet use and infrastructure in Europe and North America #4

As lockdowns are easing in some parts of Europe we have produced a final paper examining the impact of Covid19 on internet use and infrastructure in Europe and North America.

This paper attempts to draw lessons from what has been observed. A key observation concerning European infrastructure is that connectivity speeds to leading web sites from peripheral areas of Europe, such as Cyprus, Greece and Albania, are more than three times slower than the fastest Member States (Netherlands and Luxembourg). 53% of variance in speed is explained by distance from the main cloud data centres in Europe.

The paper also reports analysis across 27 countries to examine what might have happened if lockdowns took place one week earlier in four countries (IT, ES, NL, UK). Results surprised us. Analysis predicts over 48,000 Covid19 deaths might have been prevented.

Thanks to all who have supported our work and provided thoughtful feedback. Your ideas have helped to develop the research. Teh three previous papers can be found in the 'Thought Pieces' section of our website. Stay safe and sane

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Covid19 impact on internet use and infrastructure in Europe and N America #3

This third paper examining the impact of coronavirus on internet use provides an update of data collected up to 16th April.  It also includes a comparison of impacts in the US with Europe.

Reductions in speed within many countries and to many leading sites are still evident. But marginal improvements on the previous week are apparent.  After significant decreases in access speeds to leading web sites the majority have now returned their access speeds to within ten per cent of levels recorded prior to lockdowns.

Two video rich web sites - YouTube and Netflix - now have access speeds lower than recorded pre-lockdown. Amazon is struggling to reduce access traffic speeds.  In the last week their average access speed was their slowest since lockdown. 

A new ‘peak and trough’ stress test provides an insight to where problems exist in European and North American cities. Differences in peak and low traffic speeds in EU27 were 6 per cent on 10th April.  In the US the difference was 4.4 per cent on the same date. 

Maps reveal that there could be a relationship between areas suffering most with covid19 and the locations where internet infrastructure appears to be most stressed.  Statistical analysis next week will examine the strength of this relationship.