The State of broadband 2022

The importance of broadband connectivity was brought into sharp focus with COVID-19. The pandemic accelerated the uptake of broadband and the adoption of digital services by individuals and businesses, the digitalization of governmental services and spread of e-commerce. Evidence suggests that much of this will be sustained post-pandemic with consequences for the design and quality of broadband networks.

In 2020, the first year of the pandemic, the number of Internet users grew by over 11 per cent, the largest increase in a decade; in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) Internet use went up 15 per cent. According to the latest ITU data, Internet use grew to 66 per cent of the population in 2022, reaching 5.3 billion people, up from 54 per cent in 2019. A significant part of this growth was driven by the need to use quarantine related applications such as videoconferencing for work and education as well as online shopping, access to public services and remote health consultation. At the same time, the pandemic sharply magnified the consequences of the digital divide and today 2.7 billion people are without broadband and not able to access public services or learn from home.

Networks withstood the huge explosion in data traffic triggered by COVID-19. After a blip following the onset of the pandemic, average broadband speeds increased despite the giant jump in demand. Traffic patterns shifted with peak times reversing from night to day and uploads increasing due to more people working from home and the two-way nature of videoconferencing. Network traffic patterns observed during the pandemic are likely to persist as some of the changes induced will at least partly remain in place, mainly flexible work.