As more employees adapt to working from their prospective homes amidst the COVID-19 outbreak, European internet networks are at risk of being overloaded.
To help remedy the situation, Netflix agreed to EU industry chief Thierry Breton’s request to cut picture quality. Soon after, YouTube and Amazon have joined Netflix and will reduce the maximum streaming quality to the Standard Definition (SD) or 480p.
According to a report by Reuters, video streaming accounts for 60% or more traffic on fixed and mobile networks. Moreover, the launch of Disney+ to several European countries is another could cause additional stress on the network.
Reducing streaming quality was chosen over prioritizing web traffic as the latter option would violet the net neutrality rules. Unfortunately, this may only be a temporary solution, and the issue between discriminating traffic will resurface again. Hopefully, telecom providers will be able to invest in more infrastructure to handle the additional strain on their networks.
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