SaskTel wireless network equipment. (Lara Fominoff 650/CKOM)

By Lara Fominoff

SaskTel breaks record for wireless internet use on Victoria Day

May 21, 2020 | 10:50 AM

Victoria Day was not only a holiday for many, it was the holiday when SaskTel customers broke an all time wireless internet data usage record.

May 18, 2020, customers used more than 170 terabytes of data in a single day.

“To put that in perspective,” explains SaskTel spokesperson Michelle Englot, “it would be up to almost three million hours of downloading music or the equivalent of downloading 52 million photos in one day.”

That’s up 40 per cent from the same day one year ago.

Overall internet usage has been up significantly as well. While it spiked in March, it has remained high since then.

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“In terms of our wireless data traffic, that has seen the biggest increase and we were up to 40 per cent greater than mid-March numbers at one point. It’s sort of leveled off around that range. So we are 40 per cent higher than we were prior to the pandemic hitting. In terms of our fusion data, we’re also seeing a significant increase of up to 65 per cent in download data since March 16.”

Fusion internet data is the fixed wireless service that serves rural areas.

While customers have been working from home and staying home much more because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Englot says some of their promotions over the last three months like waiving data overage charges and adding free channel previews have contributed to the additional usage.

At this time SaskTel is evaluating whether to extend those offers.

“I think the offers that we do have in place to help customers through this pandemic have certainly impacted our usage. MaxTV – we have seen an approximately 38 per cent increase across our network since March 7, so that’s up significantly.”

Englot says SaskTel has been monitoring its bandwidth usage and downloading statistics. So far, she says the company feels as though it’s in a good position to handle increased capacity.

As for whether there have been any downloading or internet lag times during high traffic times especially for morning Zoom meetings and in the evenings, Englot says there are a few things to consider.

“It all depends on how they are accessing it. It depends on what network they are using. So, if they are working from home and they’re working off of a WiFi network, sometimes there could be lags if you’re accessing it that way. If you’re accessing over a WiFi network it is dependent on the number of devices that you do have. That would be the only area where customers may see some lags.”

Heading into the summer, Englot anticipates the network will continue to be able to handle demand and to improve services in resort communities.

There’s also additional information on the SaskTel website for customers to learn how to optimize their internet connections and to trouble shoot any issues.