Shocking news from DirectLink this week: Canby residents have been spending way too much time on the internet since the governor’s stay-home executive order went into effect.
With more people working from home (or, sadly, unemployed), doing school, church and other activities virtually, and just plain bored, with restaurants, movie theaters and most other “non-essential” activities closed, it’s no surprise that internet usage would be up. And indeed, traffic has increased nationwide in the past two months.
But it is surprising just how much higher usage has increased locally compared to the national average.
According to a study by DirectLink, traffic rose by 20 percent during work hours between March 20 and April 30. The area also saw a 14 percent increase in the evenings, and even an 8 percent bump at peak time — about 9 p.m. in our area — which is double the increase nationwide.
The company has seen also seen a 30 percent spike in usage of its server dedicated to streaming services, and a 16 percent increase in total minutes watched on EZVideo, DirectLink’s app-based TV and movie program.
The reports are unprecedented for the 116-year-old telecommunications provider, according to Senior Network Engineer Justin Radke.
“What we have experienced here is certainly nothing we have seen before on our broadband networks,” Radke said. “But thankfully, we have been able to scale our infrastructure to support the demand for our members.”
Despite the increase in traffic, DirectLink says it remains dedicated to its commitment to not implement data caps or fees for high usage. Its infrastructure is built to handle the demand, the company said.
“We are always anticipating constant growth and we are doing our best to stay ahead of the demand to provide the best experience for our subscribers,” said Radke. “We’ll keep doing our jobs so that our community can do theirs from home.”
