How the Pandemic boosted the Deployment of Fiber Optics
From the use of social networks or instant messaging to online commerce, streaming or video conferencing applications, digital uses have experienced a very strong acceleration since the start of the Covid-19 Pandemic. It also owes a lot, in parallel, to the deployment of fiber optics, which is gradually democratizing very high-speed Internet access.
Smart devices are the everyday gadgets, which are made intelligent with cloud computing, including AI and machine learning, and networked to form the internet of things that require the internet. With an increased use of smart devices and commercialization of 4G LTE and 5G network platforms increased the demand for the fiber optic connectors market.
If social networks were already popular before the Covid-19 Pandemic, it has now become essential. This is revealed, unsurprisingly, by a joint study by Arcom, the audiovisual regulator, and Arcep, the telecoms regulator, published on March 16.
Social networks such as Facebook, Twitter or Instagram are preferred channels. Also in 2020, 67% of the population had already used them. That is to say no less than 7 points more than in 2019. This increase in the use of social networks is “particularly high” among those over 40, notes the study.
Same trend on the side of instant messaging, such as WhatsApp or Messenger. Their use increased by nearly 20 points between 2018 and 2020, to 70% of the population. Nearly half of users are retirees, who have strongly converted to these communication tools over the past two years.
Explosion of online shopping
There is an undeniable Covid-19 effect here. All categories of the population have taken refuge in digital to keep in touch with their loved ones – including the oldest, who were not necessarily experienced in these uses. But also for fun. Evidenced by the dominance of Netflix, which, among all content providers, weighs more than 20% of Internet traffic . Far ahead of Google, which is less than 14%. This is also the reason why the government, worried that the networks are saturated, pushed Netflix to reduce the speed of its videos in March 2020.
Travel restrictions and lockdowns have also allowed e-commerce to thrive. Or rather to explode. In 2020, 76% of people had made at least one purchase on the Internet in the last twelve months, i.e. 14 points more in one year!
The professional world has also been turned upside down. Thus, in 2021, 66% of companies had their own website to present their activity, compared to only 37% in 2020. Similarly, “the number of VSEs and SMEs that use paid referencing has almost doubled between 2020 and 2021”, according to the study.
In companies, teleworking has largely taken hold – to the point that in 2020, it is the computer that has narrowly dethroned the smartphone as the preferred equipment for connecting to the Internet! “The daily use of the computer has increased by 19 points in one year”, underlines the study of Arcom and Arcep.
This strong growth in uses was largely supported by the strong deployment of fiber. This technology makes it possible to benefit from a very high-speed Internet connection at home, particularly suited to increasingly bandwidth-intensive digital practices.
Newer Articles
- Benefits of Using a Football Betting Calculator
- Netflix loses More than 200,000 subscribers in 100 days
- Technology: Its Responsibility for a Greener Future
