Germans continue to be online over Easter: Internet exchange operator DE-CIX sees high data traffic even over the holiday period

Frankfurt am Main, 16 April 2020. The operator of the largest Internet Exchange in the world, DE-CIX in Frankfurt am Main, has seen high data traffic during the COVID-19 crisis, also over the Easter long weekend and the school holidays. Data traffic for the use of video-conferencing applications grew by 20% in comparison to the end of March – in March itself, an increase of more than 100% was recorded in comparison to the end of February. Gaming traffic has also risen by more than 60% since the end of February. While the video conferencing traffic clearly levels off over the weekends – which is quite usual during the standard working week – overall average data traffic is showing a different trend: Since measures were taken to contain the virus in Germany around the end of February, traffic has become more distributed over the entire week, resulting in hardly any difference between week days and weekends.

“While on the weekends we are seeing less traffic from video conferencing, we have been able to record strengthened traffic levels in the areas of gaming and streaming. The different segments balance themselves out over the working week and weekend, which explains the constant high levels of average data traffic. We are also seeing substantial changes throughout the day in overall Internet usage. For example, data traffic during the night, between 11 pm and 2 am, is more than 20% higher, and mornings from 9 am to 1 pm more than 15% higher than before COVID-19,” says Dr. Thomas King, CTO at DE-CIX.

“In times of quarantine and social distancing, the Internet has become one of the most important means of supply in our life – professionally and domestically. The current crisis is an immense driver of digitalization and shows how important stable and secure Internet connections are – in all areas of life. Here, we hope in future for an even stronger expansion of all system-relevant elements of the Internet and the digital supply chain. We need more data centers, greater connectivity, and a robust roll-out of the digital last mile to the households,” King continues.

Already on 10 March, DE-CIX (Deutscher Commercial Internet Exchange) in Frankfurt set a new world record in data throughput. At more than 9.1 Terabits per second, this represents more data than has ever before been exchanged over an Internet Exchange. Further local records have been set in the past few weeks, among others at the DE-CIX locations in Munich, Hamburg, Dusseldorf, Dallas, Madrid, Marseille, and Dubai.