| Connectivity Resilience amidst COVID-19, A telecommunications thought leadership perspective in Africa - Report - 07/05/2020 |
| Deloitte |
| Technical Community and Civil Society | International |
| Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity – indeed, words that capturethe stark reality of these times globally. The rapid spread of the pandemic COVID-19 to over one million confirmed cases and tens of thousands of lives lost across 212 countries, (WHO April, 2020) has impacted every aspect of our society, families, education, ways of work, public gatherings and individual daily routines. The world including business communities are in the process of re-defining a new and unprecedented normal where change is exceedingly rapid, old patterns are being upended overnight and social media is flooded with information both genuine and unverified throughout the communication networks. Within this context, many countries and organizations are struggling to define how to operate, how drastic emergency responses should be, and if protecting economic damage while saving lives via national lockdowns can be achieved simultaneously. There is animperative to respond, recover and eventually thrive again.The impact of the pandemic on communication and connectivity has been felt within the ecosystem surrounding the internet and communications technology, increasing demand and highlighting the need to leverage tools and innovative strategies to survive and thrive. As a ripple effect of the pandemic, significant increases in data consumption have been observed globally as entire populations shift to working and being educated from home due to social distancing. U.K. internet service providers have seen double-digit increases in traffic amidst the coronavirus lockdown with global streaming services such as Netflix and Disney+ cutting bandwidth usage to prevent network congestion (CNBC Markets). The educational sector has accelerated use of distance learning by necessity and homenetworks not designed for use cases such as simultaneous video conference calls are being tested, having to support heavy use for commerce, education and entertainment. |
|
Source Link |