WITH PEOPLE SPENDING most of their time at home self-isolating due to the Covid-19 pandemic, mobile analytics company Opensignal has found in its latest research that the amount of time smartphone users spend on Wi-Fi connections has increased in many countries.
Using Wi-Fi connections on weekends and during public holidays is normal behaviour for smartphone users, and the fact the average percentage of time mobile users spent connected to Wi-Fi has increased in recent weeks is a good indicator of people spending more time at home, Opensignal says in its news release.
Opensignal says it is now analyzing the changes in mobile user behaviour and network experience happening during this crisis, and it plans to share its data and findings to help mobile operators, telecom regulators and governments to prepare for and respond to the challenges presented during these exceptional times.
In its latest research, Opensignal analyzes time spent on Wi-Fi in North America, Asia (with the exception of China), and some countries in Europe, South America, Middle East and Africa.
Looking at the North American market, Opensignal says it detected significant increases in the percentage of time smartphone users spent connected to Wi-Fi in the third week of March, starting on March 16, with the largest change taking place in Canada. (The week of March 16-22 was March break in Canada, and schools across the country have been ordered subsequently to remain closed for the foreseeable future. The research released by Opensignal this week includes data only up to the week ending March 22. It will be interesting to see how the Wi-Fi usage trend evolves over the following weeks.)
The third week of March also saw significant increases in the percentage of time smartphone users spent connected to Wi-Fi in the countries analyzed in Europe, South America and some countries in Asia, Opensignal says.
In Canada, the average percentage of time smartphone users spent connected to Wi-Fi during the week of March 16-22 was 76.3%. In comparison, the percentage of time spent connected to Wi-Fi during the week of March 9-15 was 70.6%. The week prior to that (March 2-8) Canadian smartphone users spent an average of 69.6% of their time connected to Wi-Fi.
A detailed chart of Opensignal’s 12-week global analysis of mobile users’ time spent connected to Wi-Fi can be found in the news release.
