A Characterization of the COVID-19 Pandemic Impact on a Mobile Network Operator Traffic

TL;DR

This study analyzes how COVID-19 lockdown measures affected mobile network usage in the UK, revealing significant changes in traffic patterns, including decreased data usage and increased voice calls, with detailed regional insights.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of COVID-19's impact on mobile network traffic and user mobility in the UK, with granular regional and temporal insights.

Findings

Decrease in data traffic volume during lockdown

Surge in voice call traffic during pandemic

Regional variations in network usage patterns

Abstract

During early 2020, the SARS-CoV-2 virus rapidly spread worldwide, forcing many governments to impose strict lockdown measures to tackle the pandemic. This significantly changed people's mobility and habits, subsequently impacting how they use telecommunication networks. In this paper, we investigate the effects of the COVID-19 emergency on a UK Mobile Network Operator (MNO). We quantify the changes in users' mobility and investigate how this impacted the cellular network usage and performance. Our analysis spans from the entire country to specific regions, and geodemographic area clusters. We also provide a detailed analysis for London. Our findings bring insights at different geo-temporal granularity on the status of the cellular network, from the decrease in data traffic volume in the cellular network and lower load on the radio network, counterposed to a surge in the conversational voice traffic volume.