Managing customer experience during COVID-19

responding to change

COVID-19 – Real-time network insights to help manage the crisis

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of critical infrastructure to support coordinated national and international responses. Communications networks are fundamental to this and the global operator community has responded rapidly to ensure connectivity, provide continuity of service, support to national initiatives, and to keep the economy going.

It’s also shown how vital operator-provided services are to everyone. Connectivity is essential. At Polystar, we’re seeing first-hand how insights derived from real-time network analytics are helping operators to shape and adapt their networks to the new situation – and to deliver the connectivity their customers now demand.

So, what are the problems we face
and how can operators respond?

Changing behaviour
and demands

When the offices emptied, everything changed. For millions of people, remote working became the new normal. As a result, people rapidly embraced tools that enable them to meet online, communicate with colleagues and to perform their daily activities.

Operators use analytics to determine traffic demand, so they can ensure they deliver. They need to be able to track traffic flows, through time, and to separate sources of traffic, so that they can ensure optimisation for the specific demands experienced. Demand has grown, but the way in which users access services can be very different.

Polystar’s analytics and insights solutions are being used to support traffic management programmes during the COVID-19 crisis, across multiple locations. They provide the real-time reporting and tracking that enables operators to take action to ensure service continuity. Understanding what platforms have been adopted, as well as the number of sessions helps manage flows and ensure consistent experiences for users.

Monitoring mobile data – managing consumption

We’ve collected some data from our customers and partners, which provide insights from mobile networks into user behaviour. What are the key lessons?

Mobile data per user has grown by 45% on a daily basis, with individual users consuming around 400Mb, on average.

70% more time has been spent online – showing that users are on their devices, switching between streaming or communications sessions. Of course, that includes time spent catching up on the news and exploring platforms that were already popular, such as Facebook (with average user data of 83MB, users are certainly making the most of social interaction!).

But, newer platforms, such as TikTok have also soared in popularity. TikTok users consume 40MB on average, with the application entering the ‘top-10’ most popular services for the first time – reflecting the growing trend of distributing short-form video content.

The net impact is significant. At some points during the day our partners report, such traffic has reached 52% of total network bandwidth consumption. In general, streaming has been responsible, as such services have taken the #1 position in the category of most used applications.

So, mobile data has grown. But, what’s interesting is a shift in demand that has also been reported. Video collaboration has surged, disproportionately to other traffic classes. There are now 5x more users on applications such as Zoom and Team, reflecting adoption of work tools in remote environments – and the embrace of new platforms for distributed users.

Video is up 25% but it’s not just video in general that has mushroomed, the number of platforms actively used also surged. Take Google Classroom, for example – that’s up by 9x, clearly matching the need to deliver home schooling during the lockdowns.

All of this means that operators must adapt and ensure there is sufficient capacity, at the right time, but they need insights to track what’s needed and when, so they can predict when surges occur. Demands from remote users must also be balanced against demands for consumer services – with on-demand entertainment suddenly becoming the only game in town.

Finally, there’s been a 5% increase in new data subscribers. Users that have never embraced data are getting online, although the majority of the data increase has come from existing users just doing more.

It’s not just video –
voice is back

While many have adopted video collaboration tools, classical voice has enjoyed a resurgence. It’s not just that people are making more calls – data from our customers shows that they are making them for longer. It’s also the easiest way for some users to access collaboration platforms – perhaps because they don’t have sufficient residential or mobile broadband to access services.

This insight is important, because it shows how quality of service and consistency is essential, at every level and for every point in the duration of each call. Measurements need to reflect this – operators need to be sure that quality is continuously measured.

Observing social distancing
programmes

Insights into mobile consumption are being supplemented with anonymised data regarding location activities. This is helping operators support public safety programmes. For example, through the measurement of social distancing requirements. Are the measures working?

Insights from Polystar show how effectively new guidelines have been adopted, highlighting how stationary use of mobiles has soared, as people have moved from public areas and observed new social distancing practices.

Insights from mobile networks
into user behaviour under Covid-19

45%

Increase on average daily data consumptions per user reaching on peak hours to 400MB average use per user due to high demand on streaming applications

70%

More time spent online on smart phones between social media apps and streaming apps

23%

Increase of streaming content bandwidth consumption in one network we observed allocation of up to 52% of total network bandwidth

40MB

Is the average consumption on application TikTok and with this jumping to the top 10 list of the most used applications on mobile devices for the first time

5X

Increase of number of users using video conferencing and remote working applications like Zoom and Microsoft teams

25%

increase in number of video calls from OTT applications

Data collected from Polystar´s customers and partners

KALIX reports – intelligence on Covid-19 outbreak

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of critical infrastructure to help support and coordinated rapid responses from all stakeholders in the telecoms ecosystem.

Polystar’s Professional Services Organisation (PSO) has been working closely with our operator and communications service provider partners to support a wide range of new use cases. Together, we’re supporting:

• Network and service monitoring to measure and manage demand for new business tools and services
• Obtaining insights about WFH (working from home) applications
• Measuring data, call and SMS volumes for peak traffic management
• New innovations to measure social distancing and public safety

Why not find out more about how we’re helping the community and how we can share insights to help the global response?

Talk to an expert