Alex Birlo on March 28, 2020
In a post, over on the PlayStation blog, titled “Preserving Internet Access for the Entire Community” Sony announced their intention to artificially lower the download speeds of the PSN in the United States, as they already did in Europe, so as to lower the strain that the internet providers in these areas are currently undergoing.
It is an understandable maneuver, as the anti-coronavirus quarantine measures escalate and internet providers all over the world are having difficulties managing traffic.
Sony are joining in this effort other big players such as Netflix, who earlier this month have announced that they will be lowering even the maximum video quality on their streaming platform in order to reduce data consumption.
Other examples of measures taken due to this unprecedented surge of internet usage are internet providers around the world removing data caps for users.
As we all are forced to stay home do to the novel coronavirus pandemic, we have little other options to entertain ourselves but to jump online. This places an enormous weight on the internet infrastructure and measures have to be taken. I am glad that companies are all pitching in and doing what is possible in this matter.
Sources:
PlayStation Blog article: https://blog.us.playstation.com/2020/03/24/preserving-internet-access-for-the-entire-community/
BBC News “Netflix to cut streaming quality”: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-51968302
