Joint Statement from the Commission and the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) on coping with the increased demand for network connectivity due to the Covid-19 pandemic

Document number: BoR (20) 66

Document date: 19-03-2020

Date of registration: 19-03-2020

Document type:
Author: European Commission - BEREC

All EU governments, civil society, businesses and citizens are jointly fighting against the Covid-19 pandemic. Several Member States have taken measures to limit physical social contacts: schools are closed and many employees are working remotely from home. Remote schooling, teleworking and increased use of streaming services and online gaming have increased the demand for internet capacity.

The European Commission and BEREC are participating in the collective effort to support companies continuing their activities and keeping citizens in contact through the internet during these unprecedented times. Telecom operators that provide internet access to businesses and citizens are playing a critical role in the crisis response. Many operators have already taken measures in order to cope with the abnormal traffic distribution linked to remote working and online education and are for example redistributing network capacity on regional and local networks according to the changed traffic pattern both in terms of time slots and in terms of geography.

The European Commission and BEREC have prepared a joint statement on how to cope with the increased demand for network connectivity due to the Covid-19 pandemic and set up a special process in order to be ready to respond to any crisis of supply on the telecom network.