The coronavirus pandemic has changed the way people interact with each other all over the world. In more than 100 countries there are measures in place to reduce physical contact to slow the spread of the virus and so the telecoms sector has seen an increase in demand for connectivity as more people work and study from home. Given the essential need for connectivity, regulators and policymakers have been swift to change their priorities and focus on ensuring network resilience and support for consumers. Recognising the financial hardship customers face, operators have taken steps themselves to ensure access to vital services continues. So far the networks seem to be coping well with the increased demand, but the pain may come later when more normal life resumes – the pandemic has come during a period of significant investment in gigabit capable networks, whether fixed or mobile, which will have slowed as a result of the virus. Over the last few weeks, we have been tracking the response of the industry in a COVID-19 Tracker. In this note we share some of the measures regulators and policymakers have been taking, along with those of the operators, and identify some of the challenges that lie ahead.
Regulators have paused normal activity and focused their efforts on ensuring network resilience and protecting consumers
As it became apparent that the pandemic was going to mean a lockdown of the population, regulatory authorities had to respond to an increase in network traffic, as more people worked or studied from home, and ensure that connectivity remained resilient. Based on updates to the COVID-19 Tracker, regulators have been particularly proactive in issuing guidance for ISPs and consumers in how to ensure this remains the case. In Europe, the European Commission and BEREC have called on consumers, ISPs, and streaming services to prevent network congestion, and set up a reporting mechanism to monitor internet traffic. BEREC is already publishing weekly reports on the status of internet capacity across Europe, noting that regulators in many countries have already seen a stabilisation in traffic, although some are still facing an increase. Many operators have increased network capacity to deal with higher demand – and in some cases they have been explicitly asked to do so by regulators, such as in Italy where AGCOM required ISPs to increase capacity by 30%. Several regulators, as well as BEREC, have made explicit reference to the provisions in the Open Internet Regulation, which allows traffic management for the purpose of tackling or preventing congestion, as long as equivalent categories of traffic are treated equally.
Recognising that many customers will need financial support to remain connected has prompted both regulators and industry to take action. For example, the UK Government struck an agreement with operators to ensure that customers struggling to pay their bills are treated fairly and appropriately, and continue to be able to use services during the pandemic. Similar initiatives have been taken by governments or regulators in Australia, Italy, and Spain.
Otherwise, normal regulatory activity has slowed, or stopped entirely. Plans to award spectrum, for instance, are being postponed in most countries. In Portugal, ANACOM has delayed the multi-band award which also included 700MHz spectrum – the transition of the Digital Terrestrial TV from that band will be delayed, to make sure everyone in the country has access to a TV signal during the pandemic. In France, ARCEP has also postponed the 3.4–3.8GHz auction initially planned for April 2020, and the FCC in the US has pushed back the 3.5GHz award by a month (it was due to take place at the end of June), and in the UK, Vodafone has suggested that a planned award of spectrum take place, but by distributing evenly between all operators at the reserve price. At the same time, recognising the importance of increased capacity, the FCC has been proactive in the US by awarding additional spectrum to national and regional operators on a temporary basis across several bands.
Operators are offering more generous allowances, and looking out for the financially vulnerable
Operators have been proactive in easing the burden for consumers, without waiting for regulators to tell them to do so, with most having been given more generous allowances of data, SMS, and voice minutes. Several operators have made specific offers available to healthcare workers, and zero-rated access to national healthcare service websites so that consumers do not use their data allowance to seek help. This has been particularly common in the UK, where three of the four MNOs, and MVNOs such as GiffGaff, have zero-rated NHS websites. O2 has also included other services such as Citizens Advice, Money Service, and the charity Mind, which helps people with mental health issues. Vodafone has offered unlimited data for 30 days to 500k pay-monthly customers. Priority has been given to those flagged as either being vulnerable or NHS workers and these customers have been upgraded automatically.
Elsewhere, mobile operator’s most common response has been to increase data allowances (sometimes unlimited). We have seen this happen in Australia, Spain (Telefonica), Switzerland (Sunrise), and the US (Verizon). In Italy, Fastweb has set aside one million gigabytes across its whole mobile customer base, with a cap of 120GB per SIM card, which will last until it has been exhausted. Other operators in the country have expanded their data allowance, with priority given to customers in the hardest hit areas in the north of the country. Operators have also been mindful of the needs of students who need to find ways to learn remotely, and are facilitating access to e-learning platforms or waiving monthly data caps for students (e.g. TIM or Vodafone in Italy).
Both fixed and mobile operators have also become more lenient towards the public, recognising that millions of customers are now going through financial hardship. In Italy, all operators committed not to take action to recover credit from customers residing in the hardest hit areas. In the UK, BT/EE have announced that they will not put staff out of work as a result of the crisis.
Governments turn to mobile data to track people’s movements, but this has given rise to privacy concerns
As governments try to slow down the spread of the virus, they have imposed strict lockdown measures aimed at limiting the movement of people. In an effort to assess how compliant a population is with the lockdown, and to aid contact tracing, some governments have sought the collaboration of mobile operators, whose data on customer location can be particularly useful. Suggestions to use data in this way have been made in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy, and the UK. The European Commission is also working with the largest operators across the EU to make use of their location data. This has raised concerns amongst privacy advocates, although data protection authorities are generally ok with data being used that is anonymised and in aggregate form, so that individuals cannot be identified. This has been explicitly stated by national authorities in Germany, Italy and the UK, although some are reminding governments that the measures adopted should be proportionate and rolled back once the pandemic is over. This has also been the stance of the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS), who called more recently for a coordinated approach across the EU in using data and building apps to analyse people’s movement and detect risk of infection. On 8 April 2020, the European Commission issued a Recommendation on the matter, taking on board the EDPS’s suggestion and proposing a ‘toolbox’ with best practices to make the most of mobile data while respecting data protection standards.
While many authorities are adopting the necessary safeguards to make sure individuals’ personal data and privacy are protected, some others are raising concerns. The Polish Government’s app is facing criticism for the invasive tracking of people’s movements, including requests to upload selfies when prompted in order to help authorities track locations. The app is also designed to store data for six years. On the other hand, other apps such as TraceTogether developed in Singapore have been praised for not needing location data, since they use Bluetooth technology and only store information on the user’s device.
We will continue to monitor the response of the industry and regularly update the tracker.
