Global internet usage has somewhat returned to ‘normal’ levels so far this year in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to new data.

TeleGeography’s Global Internet Geography research has seen that demand appears to quickly transcend terabyte measure this year compared to 2020.

International internet bandwidth and traffic growth have been gradually slowing in recent years, but they remain ‘brisk’ said Paul Brodsky, Senior Research Manager at TeleGeography, in a blog post.

Data has revealed that global internet bandwidth rose by 28% in 2022, continuing the return to what was seen during the pandemic-generated bump of 2020.

Total international bandwidth now stands at 997 Tbps, which represents a four-year CAGR of 29%. Despite the boost from Covid boost, Brodsky said, the pace of growth has been slowing. However, the data revealed a near tripling of bandwidth since 2018.

“After a tumultuous 2020 – with pandemic-induced volume surges and shifts in internet traffic patterns – network operators are back to adding bandwidth and engineering their traffic in a more measured manner,” Brodsky commented.

“Based on hard survey data gathered from dozens of regional and global network operators around the world, it’s clear that the Covid-related expansion of internet traffic and bandwidth was a one-off phenomenon,” he added.

Strong capacity growth is visible across regions. Africa experienced the most rapid growth of international internet bandwidth, the research suggested, growing at a compound annual rate of 44% between 2018 and 2022.

Both average and peak international internet traffic increased at a compound annual rate of 30% between 2018 and 2022. This is slightly above the 29% compounded annual growth rate in bandwidth over the same period.

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The boost in homeworking at activity involving staying at home associated with Covid-19 resulted in a spike in global internet usage from 2019 to 2020.

Back in March 2020, internet service providers (ISPs) said they were seeing a huge surge in demand on their systems, with Vodafone announcing a 50% increase in usage for its services in some countries.

In the UK alone, Vodafone said it was seeing a 30% increase in usage as a result of the Government’s suggestion of social distancing due to the pandemic and people across the country choosing to work remotely.

Brodsky said in the post: “As one may expect, the return to more normal usage patterns has resulted in a substantial drop in average and peak traffic for 2021–2022.

“Average traffic growth dropped from 47% between 2019-2020 to 29% between 2021-2022, while peak traffic growth dropped from 46% to 28% over the same time period.”

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