India’s internet consumption up during Covid-19 lockdown
This was a hike of 9% from the 282,282 TB or 282 PB of data used on March 21, the day when the “janata curfew” was announced, and a hike of 13% from March 19, when the consumption was 270 PB. (Bloomberg file photo. Representative image)
India’s internet consumption rose by 13% since the nationwide lockdown was put in place to check the spread of Covid-19, according to telecom ministry data that showed Indians consumed 308 petabytes (PB) or 308,000 terabytes (TB) of data daily on an average for the week beginning March 22.
According to the department of telecom, which collated reports from service providers, the daily average consumption in this period was 9% higher than 282PB data used on March 21 (the day the janta curfew was announced) and 13% more than March 19, when consumption was 270 PB.
The change reflected how people consumed more streaming content and logged on to work from home, which was also captured in how data demand from residences rose as compared to commercial areas.
