NBN reveals data increase stats to show it is holding up during coronavirus crisis

The NBN has seen a massive spike in data usage as more Australians rely on their broadband services like never before as they are video conferencing, video streaming and accessing cloud-based data from home.

NBN Co has launched a new weekly report – Australian Broadband Data Demand – to monitor the increases in download peaks since it was launched at the end of February.

It looks at three periods during the day – daytime business hours, early evening hours and busy evening hours.

Traffic on the main wholesale service during business hours has leapt by 71 per cent from pre COVID-19 baseline levels.

More Australians are self-isolating as well as working from home, learning from home and keeping ourselves connected and entertained.

Between the last week of February to the end of March when restrictions and most people started working from home the busy evening hours data peak consumption has jumped up 25 per cent, while early evening increased by 30 per cent and daytime business hours seeing a 21 per cent rise.

NBN says the increase during business hours it still well below the busy evening period when the load on the NBN is at its highest.

But NBN Co says even the increased busy evening period remains well below the maximum capacity of the NBN.

“Access to secure and resilient broadband is more important than ever for Australia’s business, education and entertainment needs and NBN Co seeks to support Australians during this time,” says NBN Co’s chief customer offer Brad Whitcomb.

“As more people start to work and learn from home, we’ve seen a substantial increase in the peak throughput on our main wholesale service during the daytime business hours, early evening and busy evening periods.

“And as we continue to see these increases in data demand, the network continues to perform well, helping internet providers to support the internet needs of Australian homes and businesses.

“We are very pleased that the network continues to operate well in these unprecedented times and is accommodating the increased data load. It shows the NBN is well-prepared to handle Australia’s growing data demand at a time when the nation most needs high-speed, reliable broadband.”