Over the past year and a half, the COVID-19 pandemic affected nearly every aspect of human existence. I can personally attest to how my family’s and my daily life, whether it be work, school or interactions with friends and family, went from face-to-face to face-to-screen. And the first thing we became aware of was just how important the communications network was to our digital lifestyle. Not just for us, but worldwide, it reinforced the communications network as a foundational component for societal and economic wellbeing.
 
But what was it that gave networks the ability to step up? How could they be ready for such an unprecedented global event?

Acknowledging the critical role of the Communications Service Provider (CSP)

To get the answer, you need to look behind the networks. The global pandemic has raised the curtain on the people who plan, build, and manage those networks – who have always done so. Maybe we should acknowledge that they, not just technology, are the essential bridge between people, people and food supply, people in the workplace, and people in the government.

Meet the heroes behind the networks

IP and optical networks are often referred to as “critical infrastructure”: they are the systems by which we interact with one another, how the content we crave is delivered from across town and around the globe, and how our industries are productive. We can certainly see why when experiencing a global event. It’s a key observation, however, that CSPs themselves are true partners for society, the heroes behind the network who provide that critical infrastructure and keep it running, allowing us to adapt to what many called “the new normal”.

Nokia believes in the people who run the world’s critical networks:

We think of our conversation with Basel El-Abed, responsible for the transport network at du. Basel told us about the challenges du faced dealing with fixed traffic spikes of 100 to 200 percent when the line blurred between peak and off-peak.

We point to Neil McRae, the chief architect at BT, who talked to TelecomTV about the passion he and other people in CSP organizations feel for delivering the experience their customers need.

We read what Scott Mair and Anne Chow at AT&T, said in their blog about how earlier investments gave their network the resilience to carry almost 392 petabytes of data traffic a day, up nearly 20 percent from pre-pandemic figures.

And we have many more stories like these from around the world. Stories that highlight not just the networks, but the dedication and commitment that our customers have always felt for service delivery to their end users.

A pedigree of performance means even more

As nations were impacted, we turned to communication networks to stay connected. And when we did, CSPs around the world were there, working tirelessly to ensure that networks were more resilient, reliable, and available than ever before. We think that’s something for the whole communications industry to be proud of.

To read more stories about CSPs rising to the occasion and learn more about the criticality of networks, visit https://www.nokia.com/networks/networks-keep-us-going/heroes/