The Alternative Remedies Guide

Home broadband users are likely to experience trouble in internet usage during the impending flu season, as networks in the UK will find it difficult to keep up with the surge in bandwidth demand.

Analysts at Gartner and the Centre for Disease Control are of the view that about 40% of the workforce will stay on leave for an extended period of time owing to the pandemic. Thus even if the workers are able to carry on with their work from home, the local networks will find it difficult to cope up with the increase in the demand for bandwidth.

Presently, consumer traffic is less during the day when commercial traffic is more. However, during a pandemic-like situation, consumer traffic and commercial internet usage will happen simultaneously during the daytime, as many children will be staying back home and not attending school.

Along with employers who are distributing special software to cope up with the problems of bandwidth and latency, Gartner has suggested that the increased usage of satellite connections, WiMAX or 3G can help tackle this problem (click for dongle broadband information).

Roberta Witty, research vice president at Gartner, has said that organisations need to have impact planning for WAH during such pandemic and include this in negotiations with network service providers. This includes variation in work hours and making a prior note of what operations will require heavy internet usage to help get a better bandwidth.