BT claims broadband network ready to handle swine flu pandemic

Broadband and communications giant BT has recently announced that broadband networks are ready to handle the effects of the swine flu pandemic following concerns from officials that the infrastructure may not be able to cope.

Earlier this week it was reported that following a meeting some officials and industry experts had expressed concerns that the UK’s broadband infrastructure would not be able to cope with the effects of swine flu, which could result in many people having to work from home in order to try and contain the disease. Meetings were held in Whitehall where concerns were expressed over just how the broadband network would cope with the additional pressure.

However, since these concerns were expressed the broadband and communications giant, BT, has stepped in to state that it is confident that it can handle the additional pressure that will be put on the UK broadband network as a result of the pandemic. It dismissed claims that the network would struggle as more and more people were forced to work from home, causing a surge in the number of people accessing the Internet from home.

One official from BT said that whilst there was expected to be a surge in home working, which would clearly increase demand, the firm was confident that the UK broadband network was well equipped to deal with it.

Another industry official said that companies would also need to be prepared and ensure that their own systems were able to cope with the rising number of workers that would have to access them remotely. He said: “This uses both upstream and downstream capacity. What is likely to happen is that the evening peak spike may be repeated during the day and providers that have no spare capacity now will struggle. This could give the impression that the infrastructure is failing.”

Source – http://news.bbc.co.uk