Internet Usage On The Rise From The Pandemic

With so many people staying home during the pandemic, Upper Cumberland internet usage has increased.

Twin Lakes CEO Jonathan West said bandwidth usage has grown 39 percent over the past few weeks.

“Every month, the trend is the usage of the internet, and the background technology that are being used, there’s more and more devices being connected every day,” West said. “Internet usage continues to grow all the time, but this has kinda had that exponential curve of increase. By all means, it’s certainly the largest amount of traffic that we’ve ever carried.”

Bandwidth is the collective internet usage of everybody put together in a household. West said upstream usage, like streaming and video conferencing, has also increased.

West said Twin Lakes typically keeps excess bandwidth available for expected extra usage. He said the company expanded bandwidth after the March tornado.

“From an underlying perspective, we would have never wished the tornadoes on anyone, or the event that was tragic and continues to be,” West said. “At the same time, the bandwidth that we brought in extra because of those has helped us weather through the pandemic in this extra increased usage.”

Not only has usage increased, but also sales. West said more customers have purchased package upgrades for faster speeds. He said new customers have purchased internet to replace hotpots and cellular data usage.

West said customers going through the pandemic won’t have to pay their bills until June 1.

“That just enables those customers that are having difficulties to pay, if they call in and work with us, we will not disconnect them during this time period,” West said. “We’re not charging late fees for people that are not wanting to get out to the public.”