With distance learning, work from home, remote access new realities, telecommunications firm logs big spikes in usage
Ridgeland, Miss. (April 6, 2020) –C Spire’s wireless, home fiber and business networks are experiencing significant volume increases as consumers and businesses across Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee respond to the COVID-19 health emergency.
With schools closed and many employees working from home or businesses shifting to remote locations and implementing business continuity contingency plans, demand for network services has been heavy and C Spire has ramped up its efforts to meet the growing data and voice communication needs of consumers and businesses (see Figure 1).
| Data usage type | Growth rate increase (since mid-March) |
|---|---|
| Gaming | 25% |
| Streaming | 20% |
| Zoom (web chat) | 50% |
| Facetime (video chat) | 37% |
| VPN (virtual private network) | 38% |
| 25% | |
| Netflix | 40% |
| Distance learning (free wireless access to whitelisted sites) | 100% |
“Reliable and scalable voice and data services are essential and we’re always ready to extend critical services that keep everyone connected during emergency situations like this one,” said C Spire CTO Carla Lewis. “We continue to bolster our network and reaffirm our commitment to 99.999% uptime as our staff works passionately 24/7/365 to provide world-class service.”
Since the onset of COVID-19, C Spire has been staying ahead of customer and community needs. The company modified the C Spire Health smartphone app in partnership with the University of Mississippi Medical Center to exclusively serve as a COVID-19 triage. C Spire also added extra data and free access to educational websites for its wireless customers, implemented additional curbside pickup locations, stood up same day delivery and WiFi hot spots for students from its retail stores and assisted business customers to quickly stand-up work-from-home for their employees. To learn about other ways C Spire is working to keep communities connected during COVID-19, go to cspirecares.com.
About C Spire
C Spire provides a full suite of world-class, customer-inspired dedicated Internet, IP Voice, data, managed services, cloud services, value added resale and mobile communications to businesses and wireless, 1 Gigabit consumer Internet access and related home services for consumers. This news release and other announcements are available at www.cspire.com/news. For more information about C Spire, visit cspire.com or follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/cspire or Twitter at twitter.com/cspire.
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