The coronavirus pandemic has put the world on lockdown with companies across industries being asked to shut shop. The outbreak is forcing a majority of the global population to stay indoors. This is causing a spike in internet data consumption around the world with countries like Italy and South Korea reporting massive increases.

Data consumption in India has also increased significantly in the past couple of weeks, and now regulators are worried that Internet speeds could take a hit. The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) are taking preventative measures to avoid internet slowdowns. COAI has written to Hotstar, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, YouTube and other OTT platforms requesting them to only stream content in Standard Definition (SD).

The COAI has also written to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) urging the government to issue advisories to all concerned platforms. In a letter the DoT, COAI wrote; “We believe that during this critical time, it is absolutely essential for the streaming platforms to cooperate with telecom providers so as to manage the traffic distribution patterns which are likely to strain the network infrastructure at a time when it is needed for various critical requirements.”

COAI believes lockdown measures in various parts of the country will create a sudden surge in demand for online video streaming. It has also suggested that all advertisements and pop-ups be removed from websites and be replaced with public announcements on awareness regarding the coronavirus.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

For now, these precautionary measures seems like a step in the right direction. Netflix is also set to reduce streaming quality in Europe for 30 days. Facebook, Disney, Amazon and YouTube have also committed to lowering bit rates in Europe. Disney’s streaming service, which was scheduled to arrive in India on March 31 has also been postponed to April 15.