OpenVault optimizes networks. The just releases their Q4 2020 broadband network report. A lot of what they deal with is a deep dive for non-broadband providers and much of what they look at is volume, not speed but there are some interesting points. At a high level here are some of the high level observations:
- The pandemic driven year of 2020 saw dramatic increases in both bandwidth usage and new subscriber growth. The combination has driven as much as 51% of additional on-net traffic on networks observed by OpenVault.
- The continued growth in upstream bandwidth, up 63% year-over-year at the end of 2020, is particularly noteworthy for network operators who are challenged with managing upstream bandwidth on their network.
- For the first time, over half (50.6%) of all subscribers are now provisioned for the 100 – 200 Mbps speed tier. Lower speed tiers of less than 100 Mbps are now seeing penetration of only 21.5%.
- Growth in median usage, up 54% year-over-year at the end of 2020, demonstrates that bandwidth usage growth defined by the pandemic is distributed evenly across most users and not driven by outliers or extreme users.
The growth in upload speed is especially interesting to me. Open Vault talks about the strain that increased upload has had on the network