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Internet Traffic in Sweden during the COVID-19 PandemicApr 22, 2020 15:54 CESTInternet traffic data in Sweden andneighbouring countries during theCOVID-19 crisis – insights andcomparisonsBy Anders Näsman, Senior Solution Engineer at Akamai TechnologiesInspired by colleague Martin McKeay’s blog post I set out to find the answerto the question: Are Swedes really behaving that differently during thepandemic? One way to look at behaviour, is to analyse the vast amount of
data that we have in Akamai about Internet traffic locally and globally.This is the data for February and March 2020:The numbers represent all internet traffic, expressed in bytes served,delivered by Akamai into Sweden (not peaks); comparing February with March2020. The blue colour shows the daily difference and the orange dotted lineshows the 3 day rolling average trend. The red vertical line represents theday when Sweden’s authorities recommended people to be working fromhome.In general, the traffic growth in Sweden has slightly decreased duringFebruary which is a natural effect of programming and event changes due toCOVID-19, albeit with occasional spikes for software downloads.What about the neighbours?Here's DenmarkIn Denmark we can see the traffic was marginal until the authorities lockeddown the country including schools and shops. After that traffic has grown.Note, that as in the case of Sweden, Mondays are low traffic days.
Moving on to NorwayIn Norway the pattern repeats, but with an even stronger internettraffic increase after the lockdown.And FinlandFinland went into lockdown a few days later, on March 16, but the situationhere is very similar to Denmark.Answers?So, can I find the answer to my question "Do Swedes behave differentlyduring the COVID-19 crisis" in this data?Well, at least partially. Clearly the trend of traffic in Sweden is more evenover the months and in line with the content available. Traffic "should"decrease somewhat as live events are fewer and people are still workingdaytime. Which it does. At the same time traffic has been higher in March,
even in Sweden but not due to the lockdowns as in neighbouring countries.Not quite the "wall" of traffic that my colleague Martin McKeay has observedin other countries.A cultural reflection:1) It is spring and the weather in Sweden is really nice. As we are allowed byauthorities to choose to leave the house – while maintaining socialdistancing - Swedes continue to enjoy the outdoors and not in front of theircomputers 18 hrs a day. (There seem to be more people in the trails runningtracks and forests, though not shopping)2) Swedish schools and pre-schools are still open. So people working fromhome can still do this without interruption.What about capacity then?Looking at our own metrics we can see that end user throughput is hardlyimpacted by the over all increased Internet traffic in Sweden.When we're talking to ISPs in the Nordics it is clear that some are underpressure (we also see this looking at other available data, but that's foranother article), but very few of them have recommended media companiesto actually reduce their bitrates although this was suggested by the EuropeanUnion**.The Internet in the Nordics is built for far larger traffic spikes than we seewith the more broad traffic increase of today, especially since most live sporteventsare on hold.We are sure living in exciting times and it's going to be super excitingmonitoring the progress of Internet traffic patterns over the coming days andmonths!External references:BBC reporting on Swedes behaving 75983/coronavirus-sweden-s-lifeas-normal
BBC reporting about EU recommendation on lower traffic Denmark:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020 coronavirus pandemic in DenmarkSweden:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020 coronavirus pandemic in SwedenNorway: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020 coronavirus pandemic in NorwayFinland: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020 coronavirus pandemic in FinlandAbout AkamaiAkamai secures and delivers digital experiences for the world’s largestcompanies. Akamai’s intelligent edge platform surrounds everything, from theenterprise to the cloud, so customers and their businesses can be fast, smart,and secure. Top brands globally rely on Akamai to help them realizecompetitive advantage through agile solutions that extend the power of theirmulti-cloud architectures. Akamai keeps decisions, apps and experiencescloser to users than anyone — and attacks and threats far away. Akamai’sportfolio of edge security, web and mobile performance, enterprise accessand video delivery solutions is supported by unmatched customer service,analytics and 24/7/365 monitoring. To learn why the world’s top brands trustAkamai, visit www.akamai.com, blogs.akamai.com, or @Akamai on Twitter.You can find our global contact information at www.akamai.com/locations.
ContactsLars EngdahlPress ContactRegional Sales Director, Region North - Scandinavia & BeneluxSales & Marketinglengdahl@akamai.com 46 70-835 46 23Ola WestmanPress ContactRegional Sales ManagerMedia & Carrier Global Sales & Marketingowestman@akamai.com 46 708 354 031
data that we have in Akamai about Internet traffic locally and globally. This is the data for February and March 2020: The numbers represent all internet traffic, expressed in bytes served,
