Netflix, Facebook and YouTube Will Aid in Easing Network Congestion for Indian Telcos

Netflix, Facebook and YouTube have said that the companies will do their bit to ease the network congestion across India and the globe. The move from the American giants comes at a time when India has gone into a complete lockdown for 21 days and as millions go online to complete their professional work tasks. While Netflix has stressed that users can continue to watch Ultra-High Definition videos, if that is what a user has paid for, one might however see reduced quality on these streams. Similarly, Facebook will be easing the network congestion by reducing the quality of videos on its platform and Instagram.

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Netflix and Facebook Would reduce Bitrates

Facebook on Tuesday said that more and more people have started to use its apps as many people across the world are following social distancing and are staying at homes. In the countries that are hit by the virus most, the company noted that the total messaging has increased by over 50% in the last month. Voice and video calls are also said to have doubled during the period especially on the company’s popular apps like WhatsApp and Messenger.

While Facebook stresses that its apps are built to withstand spikes, it would reduce bitrates for videos on Facebook and Instagram for certain regions to ease network traffic.

“To help alleviate potential network congestion, we are temporarily reducing bit rates for videos on Facebook and Instagram in certain regions,”  Alex Schultz, VP of Analytics, and Jay Parikh, VP of Engineering said in a statement. “As this global public health crisis advances and more people are physically separated from their communities, we expect that people will continue to rely on our services to stay connected during this time, and we hope these connections make it easier for people to stay home.”